Posted by Matthew Barber on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013

Lebanese soldiers patrol Tripoli, Lebanon. Photo: Daily Star

We previously discussed the advent of Lebanese Sunni and Shi’ite fighters facing off on Syrian soil. Increasingly, this fight is moving home, as well. Just as the Syrian conflict has involved foreign fighters (jihadists from many countries fighting with Syrian rebels since 2011, and the growing participation more recently of Hezbollah troops fighting with the regime), outsiders are active in Lebanon as well, as al-Nusra’s involvement there grows. The clashes in Lebanon are largely along sectarian lines—sad but undeniable. A Lebanese friend wrote several days ago:

The situation in Tripoli is reaching a new level. The Alawites in Jabal Mohssen, who have been fighting with Sunni Bab el Tebeneh for the last few days, are now shelling all parts of the city and not just Bab el Tebeneh. I’ve been communicating with my family all day and none of them got any sleep last night, the shelling reached their neighborhood several times and there was several explosions throughout the night. Even Morning prayer was accompanied by shelling and gunfire. By all accounts, the last 24 hours were the worse the city have seen since the end of the civil war. Mosques were calling on people to run away. Both sides accuse each other of starting the fighting. Ashraf Rifi (Harriri crew), the former head of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, issued a statement today saying that Tripoli is proud of its sons who are on the front and that Tebeneh is in a state of self defense. The 8 of march, pro-Syrian regime/Hezbollah block has always accused Rifi of supporting the fighters in Tebeneh and creating a battle front whenever Harriri felt some political pressure. The statement he issued today leaves no doubt that he had a role in keeping the Jabal Mohssen/Bab el Tebeneh front alive.

People were expecting the army to broker a cease fire and take control at 6 am, but that didn’t happen and the fighting carried on. And now there’s reports that Salafi groups have issued a warning to the Lebanese army to leave all battle fronts because they want to enter Jabal Mohssen tonight. Facebook pages from Tebeneh, cheering the arrival of the Salafis, are now claiming that Jabhat al Nusra has arrived and reported that a group called “Katibat Ahfad Al Rassoul” are entering the battle for the first time tonight. I’ve heard of Ahfad Al Rassoul in Syria, this is the first mention of them in Tripoli. Mikati tried to organize a meeting with heads of the groups on the ground in Tebeneh to urge them to respect a ceasefire but the meeting didn’t happen. Everyone is expecting Tonight to be worse than yesterday.

The next day he wrote:

Lebanese media is ignoring what’s happening in Tripoli and most acting like its not a big deal. It calmed down a bit in the last two day because the fighting was contained within Tebeneh and Jabal. The war lords in Tebnehe are supposedly meeting today to agree on putting an end to the fighting. There’s rumors circulating that one of their demands is the deportation of 600 Alawites from Jabal (as a condition to end fighting). But as things start to calm down in Tripoli, problems are arising elsewhere in the country. In Saida, there were clashes between the supports of Al Aseer (Salafi sheikh) and Hizbollah supporters. The army arrested the head of Saraya Al Moqawama, which is a non-Hezbollah Shiite “resistance” group created by Hezbollah to allow non-Hezbollah members to help. They arrested the leader because he was shooting at the mosque of Al Aseer.

But the biggest development happened this morning in the southern suburbs of Beirut (Hezbollah neighborhood) where three katyousha rockets were launched at Shi’a area. One fell in a car dealership and another one fell on a balcony but didn’t explode and the third missed its target and fell in a valley. This is the first time that the Shi’a area gets shelled since the civil war. A supposed FSA rep claimed FSA responsibility for the attack but the FSA later denied.

After this the situation calmed down some, but the last few days have seen rockets launched into Israel from Lebanese soil, rockets have been fired from Syrian soil into Hirmil (in Lebanon’s Bekka Valley) and other locations, and in the early hours of this morning, a Lebanese army checkpoint was ambushed and 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed—all in addition to the fighting in Tripoli and Saida. Just today, 6 rockets have hit Himril.

Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli witnessed the worst night of clashes since fighting between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad in the city erupted over the weekend, amid fears the Lebanese Army might withdraw from the area.

According to observers, the shelling, which tapered off at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning, was marked by heavy use of mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. In a one-hour period during the night, at least 47 mortar bombs rained on Lebanon’s second-largest city, forcing many residents to huddle in corners of their homes they felt could offer shelter.

Around 4:30 a.m., a 300-strong force of Salafist fighters from the mainly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, which backs the uprising in Syria, tried to launch an offensive against gunmen loyal to President Bashar Assad in the opposite area of Jabal Mohsen.

They were repelled by Lebanese soldiers, who opened fire with heavy machine guns. A few mortar rounds shattered the relative morning lull as a cautious calm prevailed over Tripoli in the afternoon hours.

Lebanese supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad fired heavy machine guns and lobbed mortar shells at each other Thursday in some of the worst fighting in the port city of Tripoli in years.

The battles raised the five-day death toll to 16 and fed fears of the Syrian civil war spreading to Lebanon and other neighboring countries.

The violence also added to the urgency to U.S.-Russian efforts to bring both sides of the Syrian conflict to a peace conference in Geneva. Members of the Syrian opposition began three day meetings in Istanbul to hash out a unified position on whether to attend, while maintaining that Assad’s departure from power should be the goals of the negotiations.

Lebanon has been on edge since the uprising in Syria began in March 2011. The country, which is still struggling to recover from its own 15-year civil war, is sharply divided along sectarian lines and into pro and anti-Assad camps. The overt involvement by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Shiite militant group alongside Assad’s regime has sparked outrage among many Sunnis in Lebanon who identify with the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Assad.

Deadly sectarian street fighting has erupted on several occasions, mostly in Tripoli, Lebanon’s largest city and a hotbed for Sunni Islamists. This week’s fighting there has been linked to a Syrian regime offensive against the rebel-held city of Qusair in western Syria that has included Hezbollah fighters supporting Syrian troops against the rebels.

… Five people were killed, pushing the overall death toll to 16 since fighting began Sunday, with 200 people wounded, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

“It was a frightful night that instilled terror in the heart of every resident of Tripoli,” said Shada Dabliz, a 40-year-old peace activist in the city. “Tripoli is part of Lebanon, where is the state? Why doesn’t the government do anything?”

Cabinet minister Faisal Karami said the fighting was among the worst in the city since Lebanon’s civil war that ended in 1990, according to comments reported by Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

Four rockets struckstrongholds of the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanonon Sunday, highlighting fears of sectarian tensions in the country that seem to mirror the strife in the Syrian civil war. The first two struck a predominately Shiite Beirutsuburb of Dahiye, Lebanon’s state news agency reported.

One of the rockets injured five people, including three Syrians, the National News Agency reported. The number of casualties from the second one was not immediately known.

Two more rockets pounded a residential area in the northern city of al-Hermel, also a Shiite neighborhood, causing property damage, NNA reported. Syrian rebels have shelled al-Hermel in the past, saying they are responding to military support of the Syrian regime by Hezbollah, which is a Shiite militia.

The news agency said the rocket was fired from a location near the southern town of Marjayoun, about six miles north of the Israeli border. It was not immediately clear who fired the rocket or whether it caused any damage or casualties.

While this was heating up a few days ago, the al-Nusra commander Abu Omar was meanwhile killed in the Syrian city of al-Qusayr near the Lebanese border (the primary site of Lebanese Sunni and Shiite participation alongside the respective contenders of the Syrian conflict). The article calls him the “leader of Nusra” but he must be a local commander because the leader of the organization is Abu Mohammed al-Joulani. There seems to be the sense that the event hasn’t warranted the level of attention it’s receiving, apparently based primarily in regime spin. Article by Jim Kouri:

Despite the cheerleading and support of Western nations, the Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s military suffered a serious setback on Tuesday. The Syrian army killed the leader of the al-Qaeda-allied Nusra Front in the Syrian city of al-Qussair during all-out-combat between the Islamist-led rebels and government troops, according to an Israeli source.

According to Benjamin Weinstein, an expert on Islamist terrorist groups, the Nusra Front chief Abu Omar was killed along with a dozen subordinates. He was shot-to-death as the Syrian army continued to plow through the rebel defenses for the third consecutive day in order to achieve Assad’s quest to regain control that city which is located adjacent to Lebanon’s porous borders, al-Mayadeen TV said.

It looks like there are leftists in the Lebanese militias fighting along with the Syrian army, one of them is a sunni from Sayda:
صالح الصباغ ، الذي شيع مساء اليوم إلى مقبرة آل عسيران في صيدا بعد أن منعهم مسلحو أحمد الأسير من دفنه في مقبرة “صيدا الجديدة” باعتباره “سنيا يقاتل تحت راية حزب شيعي”! وكان على رأس مشيعي الصباغ المهندس أسامة سعد، رئيس التنظيم الشعبي الناصري وعدد من مسؤولي حزب الله في الجنوب.
when I asked one of my Lebanese friends how is that possible, he said that many Lebanese believe that if Assad falls and Syria is lost to Al-Qaida they will be next, another guy told me a number of stories about how Syrian rebel militias earned the animosity of many Lebanese, shia and sunni, after acting like thugs and thieves and bombing civilian areas in Lebanon at random.

The German foreign intelligence agency (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) has drastically revised its assessment of the situation in Syria, reveals Spiegel Online. While, on the strength of reports by high-ranking military deserters, they had heretofore predicted the rapid enfeeblement of Bashar al-Assad, today they announced his victory before the end of the year.

The BND believes that the Syrian Arab Army has succeeded in securing its supply lines and in cutting those of the “insurgents” (largely foreign jihadists, backed by NATO and the GCC). The retrieval of al-Qusayir presages that of the entire district of Homs and the collapse of the partition plans, with the possible exception of a Kurdish area.

After two years of crowing that the end of Bashar al-Assad was nigh, the official and popular perceptions in the United States and Europe of the Syrian president’s staying power have shifted dramatically. There’s a new narrative taking hold, fueled by both media reports and assessments by Western intelligence agencies — that the Assad regime is largely stable, and making significant gains against the rebels throughout the country.

Not so fast. While the regime has made progress on a few fronts, its actual territorial gains are so far rather minor. And in other parts of the country, it’s the rebels who are still on the offensive. The Syrian war isn’t turning into a regime rout — the stalemate is only deepening.

… The most active front where Assad is on the offensive is Qusayr, where rebel forces are defending the western city from a joint assault by Hezbollah and Syrian military forces. The battle has dragged on for six days, despite early regime claims of a quick victory, with Hezbollah suffering significant losses in the conflict. Given the balance of forces, Qusayr will likely eventually fall to Assad. But despite being regularly described in the press as “strategic” — much like every other contested town in Syria has been — it is not the only opposition hub for weapons flowing from Lebanon, and its strategic benefits went largely unremarked during the more than a year it was under the control of the opposition.

Elsewhere, Assad’s victories have largely consisted of preventing the rebels from making progress. He appears to have gained a stronger grip over the suburbs ringing Damascus, preventing the rebels from launching an offensive on the capital, and halted rebel gains in the south by capturing the southern town of Khirbet Ghazaleh.

Assad also has a numbers problem. As this valuable article from the Washington Post‘s Liz Sly makes clear, his gains have largely been achieved through mobilizing some 60,000 militiamen drawn primarily from the Alawite sect, to which Assad belongs. The short-term benefits of that strategy are obvious — but by increasing the sectarian nature of this struggle, Assad endangers his remaining Sunni support, which has been so vital to his family’s dynasty since his father seized power in 1970. By relying solely on minority groups — even with Hezbollah support — it is unclear how the Syrian regime has the manpower to reclaim the large swathes of territory it has lost in the north and the east.

None of this is to say that the old conventional wisdom — that Assad’s fall was just around the corner — was right all along. However, the narrative that the Syrian regime is making sweeping gains across the country is just as wrongheaded. What we are really witnessing is the beginning of a bloody conflict that, if the world does nothing to stop it, could continue for years on end.

A New Phase for the War on Terror

A number of experts and analysts have predicted the impending demise of al-Qaida. With territory controlled in Syria and other locations, as well as free reign in parts of north Africa due to the destabilization of Mali and Libya, the post-Arab Spring security environment has suggested that just the opposite is taking place. News reports this week have discussed al-Qaida successes (and the growth of territory under its control) in Yemen, North Africa, and Syria. Amidst these developments and the continued movement of the Syrian war toward a region-wide sectarian conflict, President Obama has begun shifting the way that the war on terror is formulated. From FP’s AfPak Daily Brief: “Obama announces shift in U.S. counterterrorism strategy”:

In a much-anticipated counterterrorism speech at Washington’s National Defense University on Thursday, President Obama declared that “America is at a crossroads” and sought to redefine and narrow the scope of the country’s war with al Qaeda and its affiliates (BBC, ET, NYT, Post). Parts of this realignment include curtailing the use of drones in countries with which the U.S. is not at war, recommitting to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and seeking new limits on the president’s wartime power. It also includes returning the CIA to a more traditional spy agency, which will require a significant culture and generational shift after more than a decade of counterterrorism work and targeted killing (NYT).

The “war on terror” was noted for being problematic from the beginning of its “declaration,” and over the years many have continued to discuss its problems. A “war” with no clearly defined enemy, accompanying attacks on civil liberties and habeas corpus, the escalation of foreign entanglements, the uncertain boundaries of the use of drones—such problems must be addressed whether al-Qaida waxes or wanes, and Obama’s effort to confront an offensive understood as a “war that never ends” is important.

It may turn out to be an irony, however, if Obama’s efforts to downgrade the campaign coincide with al-Qaida’s post-Arab Spring growth—the period of its most significant gains since September 11.

Four months after French troops cleared Islamist fighters from the desert towns of northern Mali, U.S., French and African governments see a worrying new trend: Many of the same militants are regrouping in neighboring countries. One new trouble spot, say officials from the U.S., France and Niger, is an expanse in southwest Libya that is roughly 1,000 miles from Mali, beyond the reach of French warplanes and in area that before now drew little U.S. notice.

The militants’ recent movements pose a growing danger to weak African states. Militants have launched a series of deadly terrorist attacks this past week, including one in a town in Niger where the U.S. plans to put a new drone base. The developments also spotlight the difficulty of combating al Qaeda in areas where governments don’t have the forces to control their vast borders.

But the West’s ability and willingness to respond is less clear-cut than ever. In a major policy speech Thursday, President Barack Obama raised the bar for U.S. lethal action against terrorist groups, saying the U.S. will strike only at those who pose an imminent threat to Americans, rather than at terrorists who threaten U.S. allies and interests.

“Some U.S. government officials clearly want to end the war on terrorism. But there is a big discrepancy between hope and evidence,” said Seth Jones, an al Qaeda specialist with the Rand Corp. who advised the military in Afghanistan. “Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups have increased their presence in North Africa and the broader Middle East. Like it or not, terrorists get a vote too.”

Israeli intelligence experts, defense mavens and foreign policy gurus should be poring over President Barack Obama’s address to the National Defense University by now. Many of them, one can safely posit, won’t like what they’re reading, in the text and between the lines.

And it’s not only because Obama, contrary to conventional wisdom in Israel, included the Israeli-Palestinian conflict among “the underlying grievances and conflicts that feed extremism from North Africa to South Asia.” Israelis have fought long and hard to counter the assertion that the conflict fuels or sustains Islamic extremism and the Arab Spring has only cemented their conviction.

But it will come as no surprise to most mavens that Obama, along with his vice president and secretaries of state and defense, is convinced that resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians will go a long a way towards soothing Arab and Muslim resentment of, and enmity towards, the U.S. in particular and the West in general.

Rather it is Obama’s declaration of intent to bring the American “war on terror” to an end that may be a source of greater concern for Israeli policy makers, on a philosophical level at least. Obama’s view that there is no single global jihadist campaign that is being waged against America contradicts the prevailing outlook of most Israelis, inside the government and out. His conception that terrorists from Boston to Beirut to Baghdad to Benghazi, even if they are jihadi-inspired, are separate entities, rather than manifestations or even tentacles of a singular ideological central command, flies In the face of most Israelis’ view of the world. As it does for many U.S. Republicans.

“The battlefield is anywhere the enemy chooses to make it,” Senator Lindsey Graham said in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week. That is the way most Israelis would see it. But for Obama, the enemy was clearly defined and the battlefield was distinctly limited from the outset to Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen and other countries in which “al-Qaeda and its associates” flourished. And the war on those specific battlefields, according to Obama, is about to be won.

But it was only last week that in the same Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Congress’ post 9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Sheehan was asked how long he thinks the bill would need to stay in force.

“For at least 10-20 years”, he said, “Until al-Qaida has been consigned to the ash heap of history.”

A short few days later – in statements that his critics will surely associate with Bush’s infamous May 1, 2003 “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq declaration – Obama asserted that al-Qaeda is already “a shell of its former self” and “on a path to defeat.” And that he was willing to start talks with Congress now – and not in 10-20 years – about repealing the AUMF.

This is not simply a matter of U.S. constitutional law, but one of basic weltanschauung. For Israelis, the “war on terror” is the one declared by George Bush on September 20, 2001, in which he said that “Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.” That is the kind of war, possibly without end, that Israelis believe should be waged, with the U.S. in front and in command. But that is the kind of campaign that Obama told his listeners the U.S. cannot afford to wage very much longer.

Israelis are less interested in the intricacies of the authorization needed to approve targeted drone assassinations or in the pros and cons of closing down Guantanamo. For the past 12 years, Israel and the U.S. have been united by a common enemy and a common purpose. They have served in the trenches together, on the same battlefield. That’s not going to end in practice, of course, but in formal and symbolic terms, at least, Obama has put Israel and the rest of the world on notice that the US was pulling out. …

The interviewee is a young fighter from Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist Sunni group in Syria affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq. A former teacher and then tiler, he is dressed in well-ironed black trousers, a white shirt and a black turban. A gun rests on his lap. He is accompanied by an older man, who appears to be judging him on his answers. Both are Syrian and ask not to be named because they do not have permission to speak to the press.

How has Jabhat al-Nusra become so powerful?

The reason is the weakening of the other groups. Jabhat al-Nusra gets the advantage because of our ideology. We are not just rebels; we are doing something we believe in. We are not just fighting against tyranny; Bashar Assad is only part of our fight. The other groups are only a reaction to the regime, whereas we are fighting for a vision.

What is that vision?

We are fighting to apply what Allah said to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. We are fighting so people don’t look to other people but only to Allah. We don’t believe in complete freedom: it is restricted by Allah’s laws. Allah created us and he knows what is best for us.

What future do you see for Syria—or do you even see a Syria in the future?

We want the future that Islam commands. Not a country with borders but an umma [worldwide Islamic community of believers] of all the Muslim people. All Muslims should be united.

Syria has long been known for its sectarian diversity. How do you view the other sects?

The other sects are protected by the Islamic state. Muhammad, peace be upon him, had a Jewish neighbour, for example, and he was always good to him. But the power and authority must be with the believers [Sunnis], not the unbelievers.

What about other Sunnis who are more moderate than you?

We will apply sharia law to them.

What about Alawites?

Allah knows what will happen to them. There is a difference between the basic kuffar [infidels] and those who converted from Islam. If the latter, we must punish them. Alawites are included. Even Sunnis who want democracy are kuffar as are all Shia. It’s not about who is loyal and who isn’t to the regime; it’s about their religion. Sharia says there can be no punishment of the innocent and there must be punishment of the bad; that’s what we follow.

Did you lose or gain fighters following the announcement that you are linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq?

We’re with anything that represents real Islam, whether al-Qaeda or otherwise. If there is a better group, we’ll go with them instead. The effect of the announcement is that now we know our friends and our enemies. The good people will come to our side and the bad people will leave.

Many, maybe most, Syrians do not share your views. Do you care?

It would be great if the Syrians were with us but the kuffar are not important. Abraham and Sarah were facing all the infidels, for example, but they were doing the right thing. The number with us doesn’t matter.

Which other rebel groups do you see as acceptable? Ahrar al-Sham, another Salafist group, criticised your links to al-Qaeda.

I think only 5% of the battalions are against the Islamic vision. Ahrar al-Sham are a mixture of Islamists and people who like Allah so we are not sure about their vision. We are very clear as the Prophet, peace be upon him, made it very clear to us. Other groups have good beliefs but we are the only committed ones.

Will the differences lead to clashes, as have happened in some places? And how would you react if Western powers decide to arm other rebel groups?

If the arms reach people who will fight Assad and Hizbullah that’s okay. If they use them against us, then that’s a problem. We’ll avoid fighting [other groups] if we can. The West wants to ruin Syria.

How hard is it to become a member of Jabhat al-Nusra?

We examine those who want to join. First you must be loyal to the idea of Jabhat al-Nusra. Second, you must get a recommendation [from someone in the organisation]. Third, you go to a camp to be educated and practice, and take the oath of loyalty to the emir [the group’s leader].

Do you plan to carry out operations against the West in the future?

There is no permanent friendship and no permanent enemy. We’ll do whatever is in the interest of Muslims. The first duty on us is to fight the kuffar among us here in the occupied Muslim lands. The next duty will be decided later.

Do you have contact with the Syrian regime?

If it is in the interest of the Muslims, such as for gas or water, then we have no problem. These matters are in the hands of the emir.

Your presence helps the regime which has long tried to portray the opposition as extremist. What do you think about that?

The regime maybe benefits but in the end we’ll show all humans, Syrian and otherwise, the way, and true Islam.

What are your views of women?

The woman in Islam has a special role. She is respected as a wife, a sister, a mother, a daughter. She is a jewel we should preserve and look after. In the West they gave women freedom but they use them and don’t respect them. The woman is to use in adverts. We don’t have an issue with the woman working according to her mind and body. But not jobs that humiliate. Jewellery is okay on women, but not on men, and not too much. Make up should be just for your husband. You can wear coloured clothes and show your face. [The older man disagrees, saying women should cover their face and hands.]

Shouldn’t men also cover up to avoid women looking at other people’s husbands?

Our women ask the same question. Some men can’t control themselves and the woman is the source. It’s easier to prevent abuse. The men’s role is to go out and work. Man’s brain is bigger than the woman’s—that’s scientifically proven. Men’s brains have different areas for speaking and thinking, but women’s don’t which is why women they say what they think.

What if your interpretation of the Koran is wrong?

There are two types of verse. Firstly ones that are stable and unchanging, such as head-covering. Secondly ones on which people can differ, such as the rule demanding ablution after touching a woman. Does that mean touching her skin or intercourse? Opinions can differ.

Do you consider any Islamists too radical, like the Taliban, for example?

There are people committed to Islam and then those far from it. No one committed is too radical. We haven’t met anyone from the Taliban but they seem good Muslims because they defended their religion and the occupation, they kicked out the enemy and applied sharia.

Did you study religion?

I was poor but I read the Bible, and lots of Jewish and Islamic books. My head and heart told me to accept the Koran and the Sunna [accompanying religious texts]. Islam is different because it has a complete view of life, society, politics, economics—it is a complete system.

We hear there is a split inside Jabhat al-Nusra about your links to al-Qaeda. Do you disagree about that or other matters?

Comments (459)

Dawoudsaid:

Yes, Syria’s Sunnis opened their own homes to fleeing Lebanese Shia in 2006! Now, Hasan is returning the favor in a nasty way!! Next time, Umm Hasan should still go to Syria while cursing Hasan the Devil because Syrian Sunnis are forgiving!

“Even in the Dahiya, the group’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a sense of isolation and anxiety is brewing among some of Hezbollah’s deeply loyal supporters. One resident, Umm Hassan, fretted over the weekend about where she would go if Hezbollah again came under attack from Israel. The last time that happened, in 2006, thousands of Hezbollah supporters took refuge in Syria, staying in the homes of Syrians, including the Sunnis who dominate the uprising the group is now helping to crush.”
[…]

The UK Foreign secretary William Hague, and his French counterpart Lauren Fabius, are leading an isolated charge within the EU to lift a supposed arms embargo to self-described ‘rebels’, hitherto destroying Syria for over two years. Several underlying factors need to be addressed before these diplomatic (some would say military) manoeuvres are put into context.

Firstly, the most obvious issue with allowing the UK and France to freely arm ‘rebels’ of their choosing inside Syria is that this policy is against all international law, and will, as proven already to be the case, continue to vastly exacerbate the growing death toll and displacement in Syria. As the head of arms control at Oxfam noted:

“Transferring more weapons to Syria can only exacerbate a hellish scenario for civilians. If the UK and France are to live up to their own commitments – including those set out in the new arms trade treaty – they simply must not send weapons to Syria.”

Acting under the auspices, or “consultation” of Western intelligence services, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and non-state actors sending thousands of tonnes of arms and funds to extremist militants in Syria; is directly synonymous with both a huge increase in casualty numbers and civilian displacement; and the huge rise and proliferation of extremist militants operating in Syria. This highlights, as previous conflicts in the region have shown; that further Western military intervention is not about to bring peace and harmony to a nation already engulfed in the throes of war (much of which western powers promoted and enabled).

But peace and harmony are not on either France, nor the UK’s list of priorities in the region; removing President Assad and weakening the state of Syria, Iran’s staunch ally, most certainly are. It seems the less Imperial-minded states of the EU, and indeed, those less attached to US militarism and designs for the Middle East, were incensed by Hague and Fabius’ stubborn attempts to stifle the popular opinion within the EU that sending yet more military equipment to a disparate melee of extremist rebels may be of dire consequence. Hague, with his vast intellect, failed to acknowledge this most obvious of pitfalls, and seems more eager than war-mongerer/profiteer US Senator John McCain is to feed into the western public the idea that ‘moderate’, or ‘secular’ minded ‘rebels’ in Syria actually exist.

To quote an equally moral and intelligent Western statesman, the UK is acting on the policy of “unknown unknowns”. Hague et al claim to know of ‘moderate’ and ‘secular’ fighting forces wishing to take up arms against the Syrian Government; yet literally no one in Syria or analysing the conflict from afar is able to find them. As the weapons flow increased and the funds from Gulf donors magnified, it has been the most extreme sectarian elements of militia that have been bolstered by such support, and indeed, further encouraged by Western diplomatic cover and the dutiful Western mainstream media’s glowing appraisals of freedom fighters and ‘rebel’ propaganda.

This has only enabled the Jihaddi/Salafist elements hell-bent on sectarian violence and destruction to gain in recruits and popularity. As in Central America, Afghanistan, Libya, Serbia, Kosovo, etc: these extremist elements form the ‘Shock Troops’ of a Western designed subversion model; used to great effect by Western powers to enable the social and structural destruction of a nation “outside the West’s sphere of influence”, in order to bring about regime change.

Libya, again, provides us with a recent, and very much relevant example of how the UK and France are free to manipulate what are, when first employed, supposedly ‘humanitarian’ measures to fit their own military and Imperial advantage. When the No Fly Zone resolution over Libya was first passed in the UN, it was designed to enable ‘rebel’ forces in Libya to “protect the civilian population” from air and armour attacks from the Libyan Army. What ensued almost immediately after the resolution passed was nothing of the sort: the UK and France – under US direction – took it upon themselves, in almost 10,000 airstrike sorties within six months, to not only destroy all of Libya’s meagre air-force and armour, but destroy the vast majority of the infrastructure Gaddafi had built. This ran alongside a targeted assassination campaign against Gaddafi himself to bring about the desired regime change, which just by chance, also happens to be completely against international law. The results of which were neither in the interest of civilians or humanitarianism. As former MI5 officer Annie Machon put it:

“They’ve had free education, free health, they could study abroad. When they got married they got a certain amount of money. So they were rather the envy of many other citizens of African countries. Now, of course, since NATO’s humanitarian intervention, the infrastructure of their country has been bombed back to the Stone Age,”

This “bombing back to the stone age” is what Imperialist apologists might term: holding down the competition. As previously noted by many a statesman and scholar, the last thing any Western government desires is the self-determination and independence of resource-rich, strategically placed nations.

Furthermore, as candidly revealed by Hague himself, the UK and France’s pressure to lift the embargo is solely designed to pressure the Assad government to meet their demands, stating: (my emphasis)

“[it is] important for Europe to send a clear signal to the Assad regime that it has to negotiate seriously, and that all options remain on the table if it refuses to do so”.

One thing is certain, Hague does not speak for Europe. 25 of the 27 European nations were against the lifting of the embargo. The French and British refusal to accept the popular consensus meant that no decision or required extension of the current embargo could be made, resulting in its expiration. This in turn allows EU states to act as they please, as Hague said himself, this was the exact outcome the UK was hoping for. Once more, Hague is speaking with no authority, only 16% of the UK population agree to sending arms to ‘rebels’ in Syria: UK democracy in action.

The desired outcome of the lifting of the EU embargo will be increased military support to what the CIA, and NATO aligned governments describe as “vetted moderate” rebel forces. Which for all intents and purposes, simply don’t exist. The more likely outcome will be to create further reluctance of the Syrian ‘opposition’ elements within the SNC to negotiate with the Assad Government; further encouraging them and the extremist elements on the ground in Syria to continue their futile quest for a military solution. This policy will embolden extremist rebels fighting the Syrian Army in the hope they are to receive further Western support, with the ultimate desire of Western intervention just around the corner.

As Hague warns of “conflict spread”, which is evidently already occurring in Northern Lebanon, and inextricably linked to increased sectarian strife in Iraq; his Orwellian mindset seems unable to realise that adding more arms to this conflict ridden region will result in anything other than further destabilization. Surely Western powers cannot uphold this pretence any longer, it is glaringly obvious to many that Western involvement and “concern” over Syria has nothing to do with the civilian population and everything to do with regime change by all means necessary, including the tacit arming, funding and diplomatic support of extremist Al Qaeda affiliated ‘rebels’.

Furthermore, while the UK was desperate to lift the arms embargo on Syrian ‘rebels’. It was at the forefront of attempts to uphold the crippling economic sanctions put in place against the Syrian Government. These sanctions, as applied to devastating effect many times before, are again, solely designed to punish the civilian population in attempts to create civil unrest and discord against the Syrian government to bring about regime change, a wholly illegal act in itself. Hague, in another world-class show of diplomatic cognitive dissonance, candidly admitted the failure of these sanctions as a reason to lift the arms embargo, stating: “The EU arms embargo must be lifted because the current economic sanctions regime is ineffective.” If the economic sanctions aren’t working, yet evidently punishing the civilian population, why is the EU keeping them in place?

MOSCOW, May 28 (Xinhua) — Russia and the United States are still divided over some issues about the international conference on Syria the two have agreed to organize, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday.

Moscow cannot agree to an event where participants “seek to impose solutions on the Syrian people from the outside and predetermine the course of a transitional process, the parameters of which have not been determined yet,” he told reporters.

He added that the meeting would not happen unless the Syrian opposition sends an authoritative delegation as the Syrian government intends to do.

He also criticized Washington’s unwillingness to pressure the Syrian opposition not to use the conference as a tool to ouster President Bashar al-Assad.

The planned conference, he added, also requires the participation of influential regional powers, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran.

“But unfortunately, our partners hold a tough position trying to shut Iran out of the conference,” Ryabkov said.

Also on Tuesday, Ryabkov criticized the European Union’s decision to lift its arms embargo on the Syrian opposition.

Yes, the war is heading to Lebanon. Hasan has followed his Iranian masters orders and risked Lebanon’s stability by sending his terrorists to Syria! I will dedicate my next comments to this subject. See my last 3 comments, which are about it.

Comment #5 Ann consists of 99.5% of the long article (I clicked on the link to check it). She is doing this to DROWN other commentators’ comments. IF YOU DON’T TAKE ACTION, I WILL START DOING THE SAME THING. Everybody can post 99.9% of very very long articles! I am emailing her comment to Profess Landis.

Is it ok with you if start posting 10-page articles? I will do so if you don’t cut comment # 5!

As the second stage of the military operation to “liberate Al-Qusayr” persists, the Syrian army continued its advance in the strategic town today.

Many parts of the town have already been cleared of militants and clashes in the past three days have concentrated around the northern parts of the town, most notably in the Al-Hamidiyeh district and Al-Daba’a Airport.

According to the Lebanese based news agency Al-Mayadeen, the whole area has been surrounded by the army and the Syrian military says it has nearly retaken the entire region from opposition forces.

According to military sources, the army’s deployment patterns have made it very difficult for armed groups to move around, as they become increasingly cornered in the central and northern parts of Al-Qusayr.

At least 13 militants were killed in the latest clashes between the Syrian army and armed groups in Al-Qusayr.

Also, in a surprising announcement, Al-Akhbarya TV in Syria reported that Bilal Idris, the leader of al Farouq brigade, nicknamed ‘the second bin Laden’ was killed in clashes, along with nearly 100 of his associates over past few days.

The Syrian Army has continued to surprise its adversaries by launching unexpected attacks, most notably the latest assault on Al-Qusayr. This, according to military experts indicates a turnaround in the fighting which leaves militant groups in Syria questioning their future strategies and plans.

He’s posted the same 2-3 videos over 168 times. I’ve been keeping track. They are pro-terrorist videos of a vile sectarian nature. They attack some Shia by name and have called for their death. I would classify them as pornography.

I don’t believe in censorship but it isn’t my forum. Clearly, Ann’s important news reports bother Dave and he wants her banned.

Recent photographs of Hafiz al-Asad, the strongman of Syria, show him gaunt and sickly. Indeed, Asad has been ill since late 1983 and his health, judging by pictures, shows a steady deterioration. This raises questions about Syria when Asad dies? Who follows him and what are the consequences?

For Syrians, it is a question of particular importance, for Asad has transformed their government. When he came to power in 1970, the country had experienced two decades of almost annual coups d’êtat. No ruler had established himself securely and the country suffered from a weak international position. Asad ended this instability and weakness, imposing strong leadership through a police apparatus, providing continuity of rule, and making Syria a leading actor in Middle East politics.

From what one can tell from the outside, Asad has anointed no successor; when he dies, a number of leading figures will contest the rule. If this occurs, there is a good chance that his whole apparatus of repression will collapse. Syrian politics would then revert to their old ways, as officers stage coups and factions proliferate.

An understanding of the political dynamics of Syria – and the likely prospects after Asad – means grappling with that country’s ethnic politics. Other considerations – economics, conflict with Israel, ties to the Soviet Union – matter too, to be sure, but not so much as the fact that Asad and almost all of the present leadership are members of a small and traditionally scorned religious minority, the ‘Alawis. Their rule is profoundly resented by the majority Syrian population, the Sunni Muslims. A serious weakening of the regime could lead to a reassertion of Sunni power and a transformation of Syrian politics.

Alienating the Sunnis
Sunnis make up about a 90 per cent majority of Muslims around the world, and almost 69 per cent of the population of Syria. In addition, they have a long tradition of political power; Sunnis expect to rule. When they do not, trouble usually ensues.

Traditionally, Sunnis did rule in Syria. They long formed the landlord class and owned the great commercial enterprises. Sunnis held nine-tenths of the administrative posts in the years before 1914 and, despite efforts to disenfranchise them by the French imperial power, they virtually maintained this power through independence in 1946. At independence, it was they who inherited the government. Through subsequent changes in government and shifting ideologies over the next twenty years, the conservative and wealthy Sunnis of Damascus and Aleppo controlled the capital.

The ‘Alawis took power in 1966; the impact of this event can hardly be exaggerated. An ‘Alawi ruling Syria was an unprecedented development shocking to the majority population that had for so many centuries monopolized power. It meant the end of the urban Sunni elite’s domination and the reversal of many deeply held assumptions and long-standing relationships. The rise to power of this despised minority signaled, as Michael van Dusen has written, “the complete social, economic and political ruin of the traditional Syrian political elite.” Van Dusen does not exaggerate when he calls this event “the most significant political fact of twentieth century Syrian history and politics.”

Between 1966 and 1970, ‘Alawis increasingly monopolized key political and military positions, a process that culminated with Hafiz al-Asad’s seizure of power in 1970. Asad surrounded himself with fellow tribesmen and his own family; they staffed everything from the bodyguard to high positions of state. In February 1971, Asad took a step deeply distasteful to Sunnis when he pushed aside the nominal Sunni head of state and assumed the presidency for himself.

‘Alawis have benefited from the Asad regime in many ways. Making up for past discrimination, they now receive opportunities out of proportion to their numbers. In 1978, for example, 97 out of the 100 students sent to the U.S.S.R. from Tartus province were ‘Alawi, 2 were Sunni, and 1 Christian. According to an opposition source, 286 out of the 300 students training in the artillery school in Aleppo in June 1979 were of ‘Alawi origins. Such favoritism also makes it possible for ‘Alawis to staff and take over at all levels, not just in the armed forces, but also in the bureaucracy.

The bulk of government spending has been concentrated in Latakia, the poorest region of Syria and the one where most ‘Alawis live. Among the major capital projects are a transportation network, industrial plants, and irrigation works. Syria’s third university, Tishrin, was established in the city of Latakia. The government put up money for the Meridien hotel chain to build a luxury hotel in Latakia. Even U.S. aid has been funneled to Latakia.

Government contracts have spawned a wholly new class – rich ‘Alawis. Under patronage of the state, ‘Alawis have made their presence felt in parts of Syria in which they never previously lived. The Asad government has bestowed large tracts of land outside Latakia on ‘Alawi peasants, especially in the Homs and Hama provinces. ‘Alawis have moved into the cities in large numbers, and have become a majority of the population in Homs. Working for the government has also taken ‘Alawis to all parts of Syria.

‘Alawis were traditionally maltreated by the Sunni majority, and their present behavior is widely perceived as revenge for centuries of abuse. Muta’ Safadi, a Ba’thist, recounts his experience in the Mazza jail:

There were hundreds of prisoners in the Mazza after 18 July [1963, the date of an abortive coup in Syria], and I was one of them. No one remembered anyone like the prison warden, who gave free reign to torture and probing. During hundreds of nights, his escort did not hold back on the whip or electricity or punches or slaps, or insults against beliefs with the most malicious phrases. Despite this, the attentive among the prisoners understood the conspiratorial plan. They therefore prohibited themselves from hating every ‘Alawi-even though the warden was an ‘Alawi, as was the leader of the torture team. Most of their assistants were ‘Alawis who showed their ‘Alawi-hood by abusing the beliefs of those being tortured.
Twenty years later, non-‘Alawis found it harder to hold back. Riyadh at-Turk, a leader of the Communist Party of Syria, explained in 1983: “Psychologically there are already two states, one Sunni and the other ‘Alawi. A veteran of fifteen years in the Party left us to rejoin his ‘Alawi clan. . . . Even I, a Communist, a Marxist-Leninist, experience a certain mistrust when I see an ‘Alawi.” Not everyone displayed the forbearance of these two men; resentment against ‘Alawis has grown very strong indeed.

A vicious circle set in: Sunni Arabs became increasingly alienated, so the rulers closed ranks and came to depend even more on ‘Alawi support; and as the regime took on an increasingly ‘Alawi cast, Sunni discontent deepened. At the same time, the need to please ‘Alawis reduced the government’s ideological character. Pan-Arab nationalism virtually disappeared as catering to the ‘Alawis became the paramount concern. By the mid-1970s, Asad’s rule had degenerated into arbitrariness and favoritism.

In addition to ‘Alawi control of the state and its resources, three specific aspects of life under ‘Alawi rule deeply upset Sunnis: secularism, socialism, and foreign policy.

Secularist policies, which call for the exclusion of Islam from public life, are bad enough; this led, for instance, to the abolition of classes about Islam in the schools. Worse was the fact that ‘Alawis were the ones carrying out this policy. Many Sunnis found it intolerable when ‘Alawis called Islam outdated and denigrated its practices.

A socialist order benefited ‘Alawis and other poor rural peoples while hampering the Sunni merchants. The expansion of the public sector went against the capitalists and alienated the traditional urban elite. The nationalization programs of 1965 and later years destroyed the great Sunni families of Syria’s cities. Their rationale was stated explicitly by an ‘Alawi officer; he is reported to have explained that socialism “enables us to impoverish the townspeople and to equalize their standard of life to that of the villagers. . . . What property do we have which we could lose by nationalization? None!”

External involvements also had adverse effects on communal relations within Syria. Three arenas – Lebanon, Israel, and the PLO – have special importance.

Damascus’ 1976 alliance with the Maronites against the Sunnis of Lebanon aroused anger and fear among Syrian Sunnis, who responded by devising dark conspiracy theories about ‘Alawi intentions. They suspected the ‘Alawis of “joining their forces to those of the Maronite Crusaders against the Muslims of Lebanon.” They accused Asad of working with the Maronites and Zionists to face the Sunnis. Fundamentalist Sunnis initiated these accusations – a preacher in Damascus attacked the rulers as “impious” for their actions in Lebanon and was thrown in jail – but they quickly spread to Sunnis of all outlooks.

Asad’s stance vis-à-vis Israel also caused him problems domestically. Before coming to power in 1966, the ‘Alawis showed little interest in the conflict against Israel and Asad has been criticized for inadequate fervency against Israel. At the same time, he has been widely condemned for anti-PLO policies. As the Charter of the Islamic Front in Syria put it: “Although most of the regimes in the region took part in serious practices against the Palestinian case and the resistance, the sectarian regime in Syria outstripped them all in its indulgence in this crime.” The National Alliance for the Liberation of Syria accused Asad of “a burning hostility to Arabs and Islam” and asserted that “all his crimes are in the interest of the Zionist enemy.” The Muslim Brethren go further, discerning “an international Jewish-‘Alawi conspiracy” against Sunni Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular. It goes so far as to claim that “collusion between the Asad regime and the Zionist enemy” underpins the whole of Syrian foreign policy.

Looking forward to the day the ‘Alawis lose power in Damascus, Sunnis believe that Asad is laying the groundwork to break off a part of Syria to form into a separate, ‘Alawi-dominated state. One rumor has it that they are preparing the isolated Jazira region (in northeast Syria) as a refuge. Another sees the region from Latakia to Tartus as an ‘Alawi bastion. Some point to the settlement of 40,000 ‘Alawis in the north Lebanese town of Tripoli as a first step toward an enlarged ‘Alawi state along the Mediterranean coast. According to Annie Laurent: “The day when danger compels the ‘Alawi community to withdraw to the mountains from which they come (in the northwest of Syria, along the Mediterranean coast), the ‘Alawi state will no longer be an academic hypothesis and Tripoli might become its southern end.” Yasir ‘Arafat has asserted that the ‘Alawis moved by the Syrian regime to northern Lebanon were brought from Alexandretta, Turkey. The settlement of ‘Alawis in Hama after the massacre there in February 1982 was pointed to as part of this plot.

The stories that circulate among Sunnis about their ‘Alawi rulers appear implausible to an outside observer. But it is precisely this that makes matters so explosive: anything can be believed, nothing strikes the Sunnis as too outlandish.

Muslim Brethren Opposition
Sunni agitation began soon after ‘Alawis moved into positions of power. From the beginning, it was led by the Muslim Brethren and had a religious cast. The Muslim Brethren in Syria is an organization dedicated to establishing a government in accordance with the tenets of fundamentalist Islam. But the fact that Sunnis view the ‘Alawis as non-Muslims means that it would be pre-mature to try to apply Islamic laws in Syria; rather, the first goal has to be the elimination of ‘Alawi rule. Thus, the appeal of the Muslim Brethren lies in its ability to rally anti-‘Alawi sentiment – and has little to do with its fundamentalist cast. Sunnis join the Brethren because it provides the largest and most durable organization to combat rule by non-Muslims.

Two forms of evidence support this conclusion. First, there is reason to believe that a substantial proportion of the Brethren membership is not only non-fundamentalist Muslim, but even unobservant; thus, a repentant member of the Muslim Brethren, Ahmad al-Jundi, stated in an interrogation televised in Syria that he neither prayed nor kept the Ramadan fast. Second, the Brethren’s willingness to work with left-wing and other non-fundamentalist groups in the National Alliance for the Liberation of Syria – including pro-Iraqi Ba’thists and followers of Gamal Abdel Nasser – indicates that its first priority is to destroy the Asad regime, not to impose an Islamic order.

Muslim Brethren activities began in October 1963, led by ‘Isam al-‘Attar. Violent incidents began two months later, provoked by such incidents as the ripping up of a religious book by a school teacher. More threatening to the state were a series of challenges early in 1964, beginning with a clash between ‘Alawi and Sunni students in Banyas and a commercial strike in Homs. The troubles peaked in Hama, sparked by the arrest of a student for erasing Ba’th Party slogans from a blackboard. This precipitated riots, a commercial strike, and the shelling of a mosque, killing at least 60 Sunnis.

Sunni apprehensions mounted with the consolidation of ‘Alawi power after the February 1966 coup. These explain the Sunni response to an April 1967 article in the army magazine which condemned Islam as an impediment to socialism and “a mummy in the museum of history.” Large demonstrations took place in all the major cities, leading to the arrest of many religious leaders, wide scale strikes, and considerable violence.

The rule of Hafiz al-Asad had contrary effects on the Sunni opposition. Asad initially won the good will of Sunnis by easing economic and religious pressures. Commercial restrictions (which mostly affected Sunni merchants) were relaxed, private enterprise was permitted more scope. Landlords felt less squeezed and Damascenes rose to positions of prominence in the government. The ‘Alawi rulers did their best to fit in, visiting mosques and even performing the minor pilgrimage to Mecca. They quickly gave up the effort to withdraw Islam from the constitution. Foreign policy goals were scaled down and the army was depoliticized.

But Asad’s rule also crystallized ‘Alawi rule and made it long-lasting. The passage of time exacerbated Sunni discontent and the stability of Asad’s rule foreclosed the possibility of quick change, spurring Sunni Muslim antagonism. Further, life in Syria became less pleasant in the mid-1970s. The economy suffered from an imbalance between imports and exports, a brain drain, insufficient internal generation of capital, excessive military expenditures, over-dependence on oil-related revenues, and too much state interference. Social inequities and cultural repression both increased. Syrian forces were aiding the Maronites in Lebanon.

The Muslim Brethren became more active in opposing what they called “the sectarian, dictatorial rule of the despot Hafiz al-Asad.” They made impressive gains, for example, in the local elections in 1972. During demonstrations in 1973 reacting against a new constitution, slogans called for an end to “‘Alawi power.” But these acts did not get them far against the solidly entrenched Asad regime. So, in September 1976, the Brethren challenged initiated a campaign of terror. Three years later, their guerrilla warfare came near to overthrowing the regime. The Sunni revolt climaxed with two events: the June 1979 massacre of over sixty cadets – almost all ‘Alawis – at a military school in Aleppo and the July 1980 near-assassination of Asad himself. Not without reason, foreign newspapers in those months featured headlines such as “Time Runs out for Asad,” “Crumbling Regime in Syria,” and “Bleak Future for Asad Regime.”

Just when it appeared that the regime might fall, Asad responded with devastating effectiveness. Efforts to destroy the organization peaked in early 1982, when Syrian troops assaulted the city of Hama, attacking Brethren strongholds with field artillery, tanks, air force helicopters, and 12,000 troops (almost all ‘Alawi). The soldiers, who did not even try to focus on Muslim Brethren members, indiscriminately killed about thirty thousand Sunni Arabs – one tenth Hama’s population. This massacre ended the immediate Muslim Brethren challenge and won the rulers a new lease on life. The Brethren saw what the regime would do to protect itself with “steel, fire, rope, and gallows,” and the next several years were quiet.

But the Sunni opposition did not disappear, it only became more careful and more patient. Writing in 1983, Gérard Michaud observed, “today it appears that the repressive machinery has succeeded in dismantling the fundamentalist movement in Syria. But for how long? And at what price!” Indeed, after four years of quiet, the fundamentalists began to attack the government again in early 1986.

Conclusion
Sunnis have a long list of grievances against ‘Alawi rule. They dislike the domination of power by a people considered to be socially and religiously inferior. They resent the socialism which reduces their wealth, the indignities against Islam, the attacks on the PLO, and what they perceive to be cooperation with Maronites and Zionists. They live with the memory of Hama and other massacres.

This hostility weighs heavily on the leadership; indeed, bedrock Sunni opposition remains the Asad regime’s greatest and most abiding problem. As a small and divided minority, the ‘Alawis know they cannot rule indefinitely against the wishes of almost 70 per cent of the population. Further, the traditional place of ‘Alawis in Syrian society and the manner of their ascent this century both make ‘Alawi power likely to be transient. That Sunni Muslims see ‘Alawi rule as an aberration probably bears on the future of political power in Syria as much as anything else.

In the likely event that the ruling elite fights among itself after Asad dies, ‘Alawi weakness could provide the needed opening for Sunnis to reassert their power. The resentful majority population will fully exploit any faltering by the ‘Alawis. The effects will be severe; as one analyst has observed, “in the long run, it is highly dangerous for the ‘Alawis. If they lose their control, there will be a bloodbath.” It seems likely, therefore, that Asad’s demise will be followed by a change in regime and profound changes in Syrian political life.

——————————————————————————–

June 13, 2011 update: Almost a quarter of a century later, the scenario sketched out above, that “the resentful majority [Sunni] population will fully exploit any faltering by the ‘Alawis,” may be starting to unfold. Anthony Shadid writes in “Syrian Unrest Stirs New Fear of Deeper Sectarian Divide” for the New York Times:
The Syrian government’s retaking of a town this weekend that had teetered beyond its control is sharpening sectarian tensions along one of the country’s most explosive fault lines: relations between the Sunni Muslim majority and the minority Alawite sect to which the family of President Bashar al-Assad belongs, residents and officials say. Each side offered a litany of complaints about the other, according to interviews with refugees, residents and activists, suggesting, even in a small sample, deepening animosities in a country where the fear of civil war is at once real and used as a pretext for suppressing dissent. …

The prospect [of sectarian confrontation] alarms outsiders as well, and has been one reason that the United States and Arab neighbors have as a whole been reluctant to push out President Assad. “The sectarian aspect, the divisions and the animosity are getting worse,” said an Obama administration official in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “I don’t think it will go away,” the official added. “What happened in the northwest will only harden the Alawite feelings, harden them as a group, harden their animosity toward the Sunnis and vice versa. It will only harden this divide.” …

In the hinterland of Jisr al-Shoughour, a predominantly Sunni region once a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood and known for its opposition to the Assad family, criticism was directed as much at Alawite neighbors as at the Syrian leadership.

Hamza, a 28-year-old day laborer, who like most interviewed refused to provide his last name, said some neighbors from Ishtabraq had joined paramilitary forces there. Another accused the government of arming Alawite neighbors, a longstanding charge. “People in Jisr know each other very well, and they know the villagers around us and we know these villagers are Alawites from Ishtabraq,” another resident there said.

The article concludes with a Sunni stating that “the people in this regime are forcing us to hate Alawites.”

Actually, to all of you I would request that you take it easy on embedded video as well as with posting lengthy sections of articles.

It’s not about content—I hope you’ll all keep providing links to stories, but it’s about problems loading the comments section which seems to be bogging down lately. (I’m sure you’ve all noticed this.) We’ve experienced problems with the site and have been working to correct it, but if you would all only post short excerpts of articles and limit your video to only an occasional embed, I would appreciate it.

Repeat content should definitely be avoided.

And please no one threaten me by saying “if so-and-so’s behavior doesn’t change, I’m going to imitate their behavior which I condemn.”

I will abide by your from now on. I just hope that you take action against Ann’s long posts, which are intended to “drown” other commentators’ comments. Very troubling, but not unsurprising from a regime supporter. Isn’t the dictatorial regime’s intention to end criticism and alternative points of view?!

Tara, I agree with you. I think she is just desperately trying to silence opinions other than her pro-dictator perspectives. Again, not unexpected from a regime supporter.

A.P: Yes, keep posting long articles every time Ann does so. No hypocrisy!

I agree with you. Ann is inundating us with lengyhy articles that she does not read. It hurts my sensitive fingers.

On the other hand, please keep exposing HA and the regime hatred and crimes.

Yes, Tara, Please read my comment # 1. I don’t know if the lady from Dhahia quoted in the article, Umm Hasan, is the mother of Hasan the Devil 🙂 🙂 If so, she still can seek refuge in Syria because Sunni Syrians are decent and forgiving people ولا تزر وازره وزر اخرى I just hope that she wouldn’t take Hasan the Devil with her because a war criminal court would be awaiting him 🙂

P.S., I am not threatening you with “if so and so,” but I find it a matter of consistency that if Ann is allowed to post 5 pages of an article (minus the last 3 lines), we all should do the same to expose her troubling behavior.

War by proxies is ongoing with Iran agreeing to lend 4 billion dollars to the regime and the WSJ reporting on Iraq and Iran shipping fuel to the regime as well.

WSJ weekend edition had an article about the Jaber brothers as they are working in support of the regime and flying to Baghdad weekly with suitcases full of money to buy fuel.

In the meantime, the war of attrition continues with the so called forces of the regime “starting” a “new” offensive in Aleppo the famous 10 day offensive that was supposed to reverse the tide.

Likewise in Homs and Qusayr the so called “liberation” is just a few “hours” away.

Russia is going to send S 300 well it better also send expert technicians for the regime does not have what it takes to operate them.

We are actually witnessing the death of Sykes Picot, violently, and with a messy outcome, and with pure sectarian hatred. The genie is out of the box having been released by none other than Khomeini. He must be having a blast in his grave seeing the borders disappear and the battle of the end ot times come near and the evil world powers of Russia and the US being drawn in for their ultimate demise.

We may also be seeing glimpses of the end of the UN as we know it for the security council’s role of “managing” superpower rivalries lest another world war erupts over the “distribution of colonies” come to a slow end and death.

People accused me on this blog of wishing or asking for the demise of this or that country, I responded by posting that Sykes Picot was meant to keep the area enslaved and to keep it inherently unstable and to keep the dictatorships in place and to keep the flow of oil and to keep the routes open. ALl of this is dying in front of our eyes and I am thrilled to see these countries implode and explode and if these people could not manage a peaceful separation and want it violent so be it.

I have never ever read any posts by ANN. It never reads its own messages and I say it because it does not show evidence of human intelligence.

Dave does this mean you’re done spamming the same stupid song 168 times or will it be 169?

Aside from not having any talent for singing, the message is one of murder and sectarianism. My wife cried all night after seeing that obese man’s bald head and stubby fingers stabbing at the keyboard. He seems very violent!

I feel you owe the entire SC community an apology and especially one to Matt Barber, our gracious host. Brother Majed was another one who issued ultimatums and violated the rules we all agreed on.

I was able to find Global Research. Ann loves this website, because it is full of the typical conspiracy theories found in the ME and the typical narrative that the US and Israel are behind all that is going bad there. Here are some pertinent websites:

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ has directed harsh criticism at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah for stepping up a campaign of violence against civilians in Syria. According to the deputy prime minister, there is no difference between the pharaoh who ordered the killing of newborn boys based on a dream and Assad, whom he accused of killing thousands of people in order to stay in power. He also said Hezbollah, which is increasingly involved in the fighting in Syria, should change its name to Hezb al-Shaitan — the Party of Satan. Hezbollah means the “Party of God.”

Bozdağ’s remarks came on Sunday at a conference in Ankara titled “Problems of the Islamic World and Solutions.”

“The pharaoh gave orders for the killing of innocent children and their mothers to maintain power. What is the difference between what the Pharaoh did and Assad is doing?” he asked.

Bozdağ also targeted Hezbollah for joining the war in Syria on Assad’s side and killing innocent people in that country. “Those who stand by the Assad regime and kill their own Muslim brothers and indiscriminately kill women and children in the battlefield should not appeal to Islam and the Quran to legitimize their actions,” he said.

Survivors give details of one of Syria’s worst mass killings
By Danielle Wiener-Bronner MAY 28, 2013

Witnesses recount massacre horrors as Russia and EU clash over arming Syria. Nearly a month after pro-Assad forces killed hundreds of mostly Sunni men, women and children in some of the worst carnage in the history of the 26-month long Syrian conflict, a survivor described finding torched bodies and whole families dead in their homes:

A few steps from his home, somewhere near the main village square, Ahmad discovered his brother’s body. “He had been stripped of his clothes,” he said, reading from his own record of what he saw. He paused and composed himself. “He had been shot in the head, and the bullet left a gaping hole the size of a hand. His blood had been shed on the ground.” For almost 90 minutes, Ahmad described how he found torched bodies and evidence of mass killings: in one case 30 men, and in another, 20 women and children who had hidden in a small room.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 300 people were killed in Baida and Ras al-Nabaa. The coast is home to most of the country’s Alawites, the Muslim Shi’ite sect to which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belongs. Today Russia swept aside Western criticisms of plans to deliver air defense systems to Syria, calling the move a way to discourage “hotheads” from intervening. Russia is also unhappy about an EU arms embargo set to expire on August 1, which will create the possibility for governments to arm Syrian rebels. The Syrian opposition leadership, meanwhile, remains in shambles. Syria’s conflict has claimed more than 80,000 lives and has spilled across the Lebanese border.
[…]

34. Uzair8, whether this Lebanese Shia terrorist party changes its name or not, it is the Party of the Satan!

The SAA is like a train rolling at 300 km an hour! Keep going boys! Raise the flag!!

Syria: After Qusayr, Regime Eyes Aleppo

As the battle for Qusayr winds down, regime forces are preparing to wrest Aleppo from the Syrian opposition, which overran the city last July.

According to Syrian security sources, the Syrian army has begun building up its forces in several areas in preparation to storm opposition-controlled Aleppo. The sources explained that they are in the process of surrounding the city in order to cut off the oppositions supply lines.

If it were to succeed, then the regime would have managed to regain two of Syria’s most important governorates: Homs and Aleppo.

What a shame! Boy, this sort of news makes me want to break down and cry.

JORDAN: AMMAN. MUHAMMAD AL-SHALABI “ABU SAYYAAF”, A SALAFIST LEADER CLAIMS OVER 50 OF HIS ILK HAVE BEEN KILLED IN SYRIA FIGHTING AGAINST THE LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT. We know he is underestimating the number and that it is more like 300.

Juhaina News quoted him in Arabic:

“The FSA is in a very serious situation especially after the entry of Hizbollah’s forces which have turned the equation upside down. And what is happening now is the world pouncing on the Mujaahideen in Syria”.

PS – If anyone is interested the terrorists have committed a massacre of Christian villagers at Duwaina. This was a real massacre and not one of their fake ones intended to bring intervention and cause even more death.

After the recent rapid and significant rebel advances, and the resulting Assad capitulation and unconditional acceptance of, the now some month old, Moaz al-Khatib proposal, we can exclusively reveal what we believe is a leaked list containing the names of 500 people chosen by Assad to accompany him into exile.

Geneva 2 passes without any results! War will expand to other countries! and the Middle East will be on a fire and lose everything! The global economy is also in calapse! great countries will be weak! after the wars blown. Some new countries with a different way of thinking will go up!

Bashar al-Assad’s puppet Mufti, who clearly doesn’t speak for nor represent Syria’s Sunnis. Maybe Bashar is holding his family hostage! The video also shows the terrorist threats that Bashar’s Mufti Hasson made against Europe! He is a terrorist, and his regime/Hizbass are the biggest terrorist in modern Arab history!

The Israeli government’s hubristic brinksmanship is their sure and certain belief that they have a lock on all the US’s military capabilities, and US military personnel.

IF Israel goes after any Russian asset, this will be tantamount to a declaration of war against Russia; this means that the US may well be at war with Russia shortly after such an incident takes place.

But even if it does pass, given the current condition of the US government and military, the US government does not have the troop strength, the money, or the manufacturing to insure a positive outcome to a conventional war.

If the US government realizes that they are losing in a conventional war scenario, it may go to the nuclear war option faster than the speed of light.

I don’t believe that Russia will give the S-300 to Syria because it would lose its deterrence effect if does so. The United States has the technology to render the S-300 useless, and-regretfully-it will pass this technology to Israel. If the United States or Israel hit any target in Syria and the S-300 fails-as I believe it would-Russia would lose its deterrence and let the whole world know that its technology is old-fashioned! I don’t believe that these missiles will ever enter Syria. Just a talk!

Demonstrators who had gathered to protest at Islamic centre accept invitation to take refreshments and open a dialogue,/b>

Monday 27 May 2013

A York mosque dealt with a potentially volatile situation after reports that it was going to be the focus of a demonstration organised by a far-right street protest movement – by inviting those taking part in the protest in for tea and biscuits.

Around half a dozen people arrived for the protest, promoted online by supporters of the EDL. A St George’s flag was nailed to the wooden fence in front of the mosque.

However, after members of the group accepted an invitation into the mosque, tensions were rapidly defused over tea and plates of custard creams, followed by an impromptu game of football.

I wish you all could understand Arabic so you can read this excellent aricle: “When Hizballah’s Fans ask about Hamza al-Khateeb[the Der’ah teenage boy who was tortured and killed by Bashar al-Assad’s murderous forces].” I guess the fans of the Lebanese Shia terrorist party, which is now occupying Syrian territory in service of its terrorist Iranian masters, should open their eyes and see what Hasan the Satan is actually doing to them!

DAMASCUS, May 28 (Xinhua) — Syria’s Foreign Ministry slammed on Tuesday the European Union’s latest decision to lift an arms embargo on armed opposition as “hindering the international efforts to politically solve the Syrian crisis.”

“While keeping the economic sanctions imposed on the Syrian people, the EU allowed some of its members to render weapons to the terrorists in Syria contrary to what they claim about their concern over the interests of the Syrian people,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run SANA news agency.

Singling out Britain and France for criticism, the ministry said the decision revealed those country’s “political hypocrisy.”

A day earlier, the EU decided to lift arms embargo on Syria’s opposition after France and Britain threw all their weight behind the ban-lift during marathon negotiations in Brussels amid reports that 25 of 27 EU governments opposed the Anglo-French policy.

Armed Forces reinforced by Troops from the National Defense are now advancing strongly towards the “Al-Nusra Front” stronghold City of “Aandan” which is located only several Kilometers from the Turkish Border in rural Aleppo, following complete control over the strategic and very important area of “Dahret Abed Rabbo”, which overlooks most of the Northern Countryside of Aleppo and suburbs, in addition there were reports that Turkish Customs was not allowing any Terrorists to cross the border for the past couple of days, without providing a reason …

I asked you question earlier and I am impatiently 🙂 awaiting your answer: Is Umm Hasan أم حسن, who is mentioned in the news article below, the mother of Hasan the Satan حسن نصر الشيطان or another Hasan?

“Even in the Dahiya, the group’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a sense of isolation and anxiety is brewing among some of Hezbollah’s deeply loyal supporters. One resident, Umm Hassan, fretted over the weekend about where she would go if Hezbollah again came under attack from Israel. The last time that happened, in 2006, thousands of Hezbollah supporters took refuge in Syria, staying in the homes of Syrians, including the Sunnis who dominate the uprising the group is now helping to crush.”
[…]

Exclusive: Obama Asks Pentagon for Syria No-Fly Zone Plan
by Josh Rogin May 28, 2013 3:06 PM EDT
Updated
Pentagon spokesman Dave Lapan sent the following statement to The Daily Beast after this story posted: “There is no new planning effort underway. The Joint Staff, along with the relevant combatant commanders, continue to conduct prudent planning for a range of possible military options.”
Along with no-fly zone plans, the White House is considering arming parts of the Syrian opposition and formally recognizing the Syrian opposition council, reports Josh Rogin.ama-asks-pentagon-for-syria-no-fly-zone-plan.html
No-fly Zone???

Exclusive: Obama Asks Pentagon for Syria No-Fly Zone Plan
by Josh Rogin May 28, 2013 3:06 PM EDT
Updated
Pentagon spokesman Dave Lapan sent the following statement to The Daily Beast after this story posted: “There is no new planning effort underway. The Joint Staff, along with the relevant combatant commanders, continue to conduct prudent planning for a range of possible military options.”
Along with no-fly zone plans, the White House is considering arming parts of the Syrian opposition and formally recognizing the Syrian opposition council, reports Josh Rogin.

Pentagon spokesman Dave Lapan sent the following statement to The Daily Beast after this story posted: “There is no new planning effort underway. The Joint Staff, along with the relevant combatant commanders, continue to conduct prudent planning for a range of possible military options.”

Along with no-fly zone plans, the White House is considering arming parts of the Syrian opposition and formally recognizing the Syrian opposition council, reports Josh Rogin.

The White House has asked the Pentagon to draw up plans for a no-fly zone inside Syria that would be enforced by the U.S. and other countries such as France and Great Britain, two administration officials told The Daily Beast.

““No doubt, the United States and its like-minded allies and partners are fully capable, without the use of ground troops, of obviating the Assad regime’s degraded, fixed, and mobile air defenses and suppressing the regime’s use of airpower,” said Robert Zarate, policy director at the Foreign Policy Initiative, a Washington-based group that advocates for aggressive U.S. military action in support of human rights and democratic allies. ‘But the question is whether that’s something President Obama actually has the will and resolve to do.’”

Now, we all know why Russia is scared to send the S-300 to Syria! Russia knows that the United States has the capability to destroy these missiles and show the whole world that Russian technology is old-fashioned and not worth the money wasted on them! 🙂

It’s good that the United States and EU are about to supply arms to the opposition and impose a no-fly zone AFTER the terrorist Shia Lebanese party Hizbass sent its terrorists to Syria. Hizbass would have been scared to intervene if this had happened before its occupation of Syrian territories. Now, it’s a good chance to destroy the Hizbass’ military terror capabilities and kill as many of its terrorists as possible! Hopefully, all of them! If the Shia Clerics are overwhelmed performing funeral sermons for these terrorists, they can have Bashar’s terrorists “Sunni” Mufti Hassoun to help them 🙂

Government sources previously told the New Yorker that military action in Syria would likely constitute a “nightmare scenario” both tactically and on the home front, where Americans are “exhausted” from the seemingly endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Officials from the Obama administration have revealed that the White House asked the Pentagon to outline plans for a military no-fly zone over Syria, continuing strategy discussions that have been ongoing for more than a year.

If enacted, the no-fly zone would be enforced by the US military with help from France, Great Britain and other allies.

This update is the latest in President Obama’s strategy to publicly advocate for a negotiated peaceful solution while, after speculating that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons, he has reportedly been weighing the benefits of direct military aid to the country’s insurgency. Two administration officials, speaking with The Daily Beast, stressed that no military decisions have been finalized.

“The White House is still in contemplation mode but the planning is moving forward and it’s more advanced than it’s ever been,” said one official, who remained anonymous. “All this effort to pressure the regime is part of the overall effort to find a political solution, but what happens if Geneva fails? It’s only prudent to plan for other options.”

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little denied the anonymous White House quotes, reminding the public that the US has closely monitored the unrest since the dawn of the Arab Spring. However, Richard Engel of NBC News reported that no-fly zone discussions had been ongoing for more than one year.

“There is no new military planning effort underway with regard to Syria,” Little said. “The Joint Staff, along with the relevant combatant commanders, continue to conduct prudent planning for a range of possible military operations.”

A no-fly zone is often enacted as a final precaution before military intervention. The no-fly zone in question, according to The Daily Beast, was requested shortly before US Secretary of State John Kerry traveled through the Middle East last week attempting to convince Syrian rebel forces and President Assad to negotiate the end of the Syrian civil war next month in Geneva, Switzerland. As a precondition for negotiation, the rebels have demanded Assad leave power, a scenario that is difficult to imagine.

Before this news was made public lawmakers pushed Obama and his advisors to clarify the exact goals of any means of intervention, most notably those of a no-fly zone, which would be difficult to implement.

by choosing to avoid either a decisive military intervention in Syria or to make a decisive diplomatic intervention (however faint its prospects), Obama has largely settled for being led by events and actors in the region. And given the trajectory of those event, this may mean, in effect, settling for Assad

One of the paradoxes of the Syrian crisis has been the way Russia and China have worked determinedly to prevent America from doing something that it clearly does not want to do.

I asked a diplomat from a P5 country about this in New York a few weeks ago. He said that while it was clear Obama did not want to intervene in Syria, Russia and China feared America would be forced into an intervention. This explains, he added, the lack of even a humanitarian resolution on Syria from the Security Council. ‘We don’t want to see an intervention via the back door’, he argued.

Later, speaking to a range of Syria-watchers in Washington, I was told by most that eventually Obama would be forced by the spiraling consequences of the conflict to do what he fears most.

Yet no-one I spoke to could easily point to a key moment or factor that would move the President’s hand: not humanitarian reasons (80,000 already dead); nor geo-political ones (how much more ground can Iran, Hizbullah or the Jihadis gain?); not the spillover (which could get worse, but that is already obvious now, so why wait?); nor even, as we have already seen, the use of chemical weapons.

A number of observers noted that Obama was rejecting almost every course of action recommended to him with an almost bloodless calculation of the statistical likelihood of success. Or, as one said, Obama is acting more like America’s ‘analyst in chief’ than its ‘commander in chief’.

That quip wasn’t intended as a compliment, but given the last decade of American policy in the Middle East, many would applaud Obama’s more pointy-eared approach as a welcome change from the clench-fisted policies of his predecessor, George W Bush.

But here’s the thing. Obama’s coldly analytical approach may play out in a way so brutally pragmatic that it will make even his warmest applauders shuffle uncomfortably in their café chairs. In fact, if you understand that Obama’s overwhelming imperative is to keep America out of the conflict, as it clearly is, then logically he would even be willing to settle for an Assad victory.

The president understands that the longer the conflict goes on, the more likely that there will eventually be some unexpected calamity that will force a change of policy; or perhaps the weight of negative consequences from the conflict will grow so heavy that he can no longer ignore them. Therefore, he needs the conflict to end, and to end by the most expeditious route.

In the early days of the uprising, Obama undoubtedly pinned his hopes on Assad’s rapid departure. With the regime showing great resilience and perhaps even some recovery of late, he may now secretly and reluctantly calculate that the best hope of avoiding an intervention is if Assad stays.

It is a harsh judgment to make of Obama and an even harder claim to substantiate. And I am not saying Obama would actively work toward that outcome — just that he might not work to avoid it either.

A key test of this hypothesis will come with the mooted Geneva II conference. Even as it was announced there were fears it was just a means for Obama to deflect growing calls for a more direct role in the conflict, in particular by arming the opposition.

In fact, the EU’s mostly empty decision to lift the arms embargo on Syria is being portrayed, conveniently, as a first step in an effort to convince Assad that he needs to negotiate at a Geneva II. I am not sure Assad will be rushing to capitulate, not least given that so far he seems to have been the only beneficiary of the EU’s decision (with the Russians using it as a pretext to announce they will go ahead with the long-mooted delivery of S300 missiles).

Thanks for posting this article. First, you should have provided the link and author of this article. I am doing so for you below. The author is Muhammad Krishan, the popular Tunisian news anchor on Aljazeera Arabic-who supports the revolution and criticizes Bashar’s war crimes. Second, this article is consistent with this criticism. I agree with him that Hasan the Satan of Lebanon’s Shia terrorist party Hizbass is NOT “stupid,” but also agree with him that he is a sectarian killer-who has so far killed more Lebanese and Syrians that Israelis. Excellent article! I am happy 🙂 Thanks! Free Syria, Free Palestine~

Well well. Once again xinhua news is the leader of what is happening in the world. How about the latest in Chinese censorship of its citizens.

How about HNN which has the same stories from the source rehashed in all the outlets SANA ALAM PRESS MAYADEEN MANAR IKHBARIA and so on.

How come it needs HA fighters? How is this not an indication of its complete failure as a military institution?

How come no one is asking how is it that Iran can give Syria a 4 billion line of credit and Iraq is shipping oil to Syria and no one is objecting to “foreign intervention”?

How come France and the UK are so adamant about arming the rebels? What is it that they know that we do not? Or is it just oil money that they want to have to sell weapons?

WSJ has a nice article about the fact that Nigeria, Venezuela, Algeria, and Iran are having a fit and are apoplectic about the fact that the US and Canadian Oil Shale will bring the price of the barrel of oil to below 90 dollars. Now it is at 102 dollars.

Algeria needs to be at 121 and Iran above 100 to continue to provide for its increasing youth population. Already there are riots in Algeria.

KSA is the only country that can have flexibility of oil production. It can according to the article bring down the Iranian and Chavez economies but it will also bring down with it the Algerian and Nigerian ones as well.

There is no escape that for the next 20 years the oil production in the US and Canada is going to change the short term political landscape.

UAE and KSA have the financial depth to withstand it. Russia Iran and the others do not.

If on top of all of that the S 300 performs poorly, even the last remaining card of arms exports will be gone.

Death to Sykes Picot.

Meanwhile let the IT continue to post full stupid article and the Retard continue to tell us that the Czar is coming.

Fact: one third of Russia’s workforce is drunk at any one time. This is something that Gorbachev did do something about it by closing 90% of liquor stores bringing the life expectancy back to over 70 and reversing the population decline.

But Batman and Robin Putin and Medvedev reversed all of that and the result is that the population of Russia will be a third less in 30 years with all of the east taken over by the Chinese and Indians as they have the workforce to exploit it.

I would argue that Putin is dangerous for he can risk a war to keep the illusion of a superpower.

There has been a growing narrative in the media that it is necessary for the U.S. to act with a full-scale military intervention in Syria to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad, with the usual myopic and willfully dishonest arguments.

Thomas L. Friedman, for example, in the New York Times opines that to simply directly arm the rebels to topple the Assad regime would be a mistake, because doing that would result in yet another chaotic war in Syria between Sunnis, Alawites, and Kurds. His suggestion is that “we not only need to arm the rebels but we need to organize an international peacekeeping force to enter Syria as soon as the regime falls to help manage the transition.”

Friedman naturally does not mention the fact that the U.S. has already been intervening to prolong and escalate the violence, such as by coordinating the flow of arms to the rebels, or that most of these arms have ended up in the hands of Islamic extremists, such as the al-Nusra Front, which is essentially an extension of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The willful omission of these facts is a key element of the current propaganda campaign to manufacture consent for yet another war in the Middle East.

In an even grosser example of warmongering, Ray Takeyh makes the argument in a Times op-ed that the U.S. needs a full-scale military intervention in Syria in order to maintain its credibility and send a message to Iran that it is serious.

He speaks of the “Iran’s recalcitrant mullahs” and the need to “scale back their nuclear zeal and conform to international nonproliferation agreements”, which is the usual euphemistic way of saying that Iran, which is abiding by its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), must surrender what the treaty describes as an “inalienable right” to research and develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including uranium enrichment.

What he wants readers to believe is that Iran is working on building nuclear weapons, even though there is no credible evidence for this and the U.S.’s own intelligence community assesses that Iran has no active nuclear weapons program.

Takeyh warns against making a “tentative and halting” intervention in Syria because nothing short of “an overwhelming show of military force” that includes “putting boots on the ground” could “end Syria’s civil war or intimidate Iran’s rulers.” Again, apart from the usual Orwellian logic that to bring peace it is necessary that we make war, the fanciful notion that the U.S. government has a benevolent intent to stop the bloodshed is belied by the fact that it has already intervened to help escalate the civil war.

“America must accept the need for a robust intervention”, Takeyh opines in the Times, which is certainly no stranger to acting as a propaganda outlet by publishing warmongering articles calling on the U.S. government to violate its own Constitution as well as international law in order to manufacture consent for its criminal foreign policies (one may recall, to cite perhaps the most obvious example, how the Times uncritically parroted government officials’ lies about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, repeating them as fact to its readers).

Making the case that the U.S. needs to reestablish its credibility, Takeyh argues that America must “convince Iran’s leaders” that it has “an appetite for fighting a major war in the region”.

He throws in the usual appeals to the humanitarian sensibilities of the American public, suggesting that the “vicious Mr. Assad” is someone “who has no qualms about carrying out ethnic cleansing in a struggle to the death.” He thus falls short of actually claiming the Syrian government is presently engaging in ethnic cleansing while nevertheless making the implicit hypothetical argument that a U.S. war on Syria would be a humanitarian intervention to prevent such from occurring. Never mind that, as Thomas L. Friedman warned, overthrowing Assad would likely result in an even more chaotic and violent situation than the one that already exists, with the predictable dire humanitarian consequences.

He also asserts that the “the Assad regime appears to have violated all norms of warfare by using chemical weapons against civilians”, an assertion he has simply parroted from U.S. government officials, whose claims have been called into question by observes, including by a U.N. investigation that found no evidence that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons, but that the U.S.-backed rebels, on the other hand, may have.

Very troubling racist/sectarian LEAKED video of 3 terrorists from Lebanon’s Shia terrorist party Hizbass in al-Qasir, Syria. The three Shia terrorists are laughing, smoking, drinking [American] Pepsi, and CURSING Sunni Muslims’ religion (deen), and joking about martyrdom and meeting Imam Ali (who I am sure has nothing to do with anybody killing on behalf of dictators; Imam Ali himself died while resisting an emerging hereditary dictatorship like Bashar’s):

DAMASCUS, Syria – It is known as the Zaslon Special Forces unit attached to Russian SVR, or Foreign Intelligence Service, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Zaslon, meaning “Shield,” was established in 1998 to perform covert missions abroad from hostage rescues to assassinations and whatever other SVR operations may be under way in the world.

It is said to be as well-equipped as the legendary Alfa and Vympel Russian commandos and trained for all contingencies.

Its personnel are on duty around the clock and don’t inform other Russian Special services of their missions.

The highly secret unit completely shuns publicity. Consequently, not much is known about members, said to number some 280.

Now, sources within Syria say elements of the unit have been dispatched to that country. The Zaslon units may have been sent to guard Russian nationals, including the Russian embassy in Damascus.

The unit also is prepared to escort Russian and high-level Syrian government officials out of Syria and is prepared to destroy sensitive documents and high-technology equipment if the rebels advance on Damascus and cannot be halted by Syrian military troops.

The Russians do not want their military technology or sensitive documents captured. They certainly would be of utmost interest to Western intelligence services.

In preparing for the worst in Syria, Moscow reportedly has dispatched a small Russian naval force into the Mediterranean Sea with a contingent of 300 naval infantry marines, as well as empty troopships which may be on hand to evacuate Russian nationals.

Most likely, any Russian evacuation would be through the Russian naval facility at the Syrian port of Tartus.

Dispatch of the Zaslon Special Forces unit is expected first to strengthen security at the Russian embassy in Damascus and form a security ring around the Russian military and technical advisers now in the country.

This isn’t the first time that a Zaslon unit has been dispatched to Damascus. Last year, one provided security for former SVR director Mikhail Fradkov when he visited there.

Given the mounting concern for the Jabhat al-Nusra group, an offshoot of al-Qaida from Iraq and comprised of other foreign nationals, the Zaslon unit also may be used to target key personnel within that Sunni Islamist militant group.

Intercepted Communication recording of the occupying terrorists from Lebanon’s Shia terrorist party CYRING for help and asking for relief. These terrorists are surrounded by the al-Qasir Syrian resistance. Shame on the Lebanese Shia terrorist Hasan Nasr-Satan for sending other people’s sons/fathers/husbands to die in Syria:

Faisal al-Qasem today on Aljazeera said that Palestinian children sent a message to both Hasan Nasr-Satan and Bashar al-Assad: “If you need to kill Syrians to liberate Palestine, We Don’t want Palestine Liberated!”

Before HizbAllah and Amal, the Lebanese Shia fought in the Palestenian organizations. You, the Palestenians, treated them with the same attitude you are displaying here on this blog where you disdain them and you think you are better than them:

How come dude? care to explain to us what makes your brand or religion better than theirs?

The level of disdain and disregard you display towards Shia is equal to racist rants of many. Do you have any doubts about this?

Azmi Bishara was a great Palestinian who engaged the finest leaders of the world like Hafez Assad and Dawoud’s favorite, Hassan Nasrallah. All in the name of irradicating Israel, the country that provided him a college education, a job, and an opportunity to represent his people in the Knesset. Of course, while being afforded equality and freedom.

TEHRAN — At his first presidential campaign rally, Saeed Jalili on Friday welcomed the cheers of thousands of young men as he hauled himself onto the stage. His movements were hampered by a prosthetic leg, a badge of honor from his days as a young Revolutionary Guards member in Iran’s great trench war with Iraq.
Welcome, living martyr, Jalili,” the audience shouted in unison, most of them too young to have witnessed the bloody conflict themselves but deeply immersed in the national veneration of its veterans. Waving flags belonging to “the resistance” — the military cooperation among Iran, Syria, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and some Palestinian groups — the crowd roared the candidate’s election slogan: “No compromise. No submission. Only Jalili.”
[…]

Please don’t say: “Dawoud’s favorite, Hassan Nasrallah.” You know how much I despise this murderous terrorist!

As to Bishara, he was misled and now he must be shocked to know that he was befriending the terrorist Hasan and the murderous Bashar. Never too late for repentance! I hope that you, Mr. A.P., would also repent and realize that occupying and colonizing somebody else’s lands is immoral and wrong! I know that you are Jewish, and I have a lot of respect for Judaism and religions (including Shia Islam, although I despise ONLY the Shias who support the murderous dictator). You and I could be real friends and enjoy talking about peace and justice while drinking coffee at Starbucks!

I do not support hizbullah’s involvement in Q’sair but I understand it, you guys keep saying that self defense is a god given right but you seem to suggest that Shia do not have that right, keep in mind that attacks on Shia did not start yesterday, they started a long time ago, it is not Shia who are bombing Shia villages , destroying or promising to destroy Shia holy places, and kidnapping shia civilians, it is the rebels , who claim that they are defending themselves and the Syrian people, hizbullah will pay a heavy price for supporting Bashar and acting on Iran’s behalf but without the regime and Iran hizbullah will become an easy target for its enemies who want Lebanon to become a farm for Hariri and his GCC sheikhs, it is unfortunate that the regime is using hizbullah to ensure its survival but the same goes for the rebels who are tools but not self propelled engines.
A Sunni- Shia war is not desired by either side, it only helps to weaken Muslims and serve Israel, for Muslims to enter the 21st century they need to stop killing each other and build a pleural society ruled by pleural governments,look at the GCC, the main financier of rebels, and tell me how pleural their societies and governments are, what made this mess possible is autocratic regimes from Iran, to the GCC to Syria, the ruling class in those countries have different agenda from that of their people who simply want to live and let others live, direct your anger at the regimes not their victims and their foot soldiers.

“Nietzsche once said, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” That has proved to be very prophetic in the Syrian scenario. Away from the all the agendas, whitewashing, propaganda, and outright lies of the global media stations, what we saw on the ground when the rebel fighters entered Aleppo was a far different reality. It hit home hard. It was a shock, especially to those of us who had supported and believed in the uprising all along. It was the ultimate betrayal.”

A Shattered Town at the Center of Rebels’ Battle With the Government and Hezbollah
A video posted online on Friday hints at the scale of the destruction in Qusayr, a strategic rebel-held town that has been bombarded for days by the government and its allies in Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group. Buildings lie in rubble and a hole is blasted in the side of the minaret of a nearby mosque. A fire rages in the middle of the street. Residents say government and Hezbollah fighters attacking the town fired surface-to-surface missiles, “a new strategy” in this battle.

A Shattered Town at the Center of Rebels’ Battle With the Government and Hezbollah
A video posted online on Friday hints at the scale of the destruction in Qusayr, a strategic rebel-held town that has been bombarded for days by the government and its allies in Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group. Buildings lie in rubble and a hole is blasted in the side of the minaret of a nearby mosque. A fire rages in the middle of the street. Residents say government and Hezbollah fighters attacking the town fired surface-to-surface missiles, “a new strategy” in this battle.

Robert Fisk: ‘We ran up to the roof. That was when the second missile killed Loulou’: Lebanon is counting the cost in human lives of the Syrian conflict
Village after Shia village had hung photos of men who went to fight for Qusayr two weeks ago

Loulou Awad’s blood still stained the concrete of her broken home, the latest Lebanese innocent to pay the price of Syria’s war. Her almost equally broken father Abdullah pressed the hands of his grieving family and their friends, thanking them for sharing his grief at the loss of his daughter. He was 60 and now looked 100. She was only 20, a Shia Muslim in a Shia town, a student with little reason to expect death on the rooftop of the villa high in the hills above Hermel. But far away to the north-east, a rime of brown, flat smoke hung over a distant Syrian city called Qusayr. That is where death probably came from.
“We were eating dinner downstairs at about 8.15 when a missile hit some land close to us,” Abdullah said, speaking with great care so that we should understand the nature of his tragedy. “Well, we all ran up to the roof to see the explosion and the smoke. We were all there, and that’s when the second missile came in and hit the roof and it killed Loulou.” The black-dressed neighbours clucked their tongues at this terrible little story. A cousin muttered that he thought Lebanon was closer to civil war. I said I doubted it. “You are wrong,” he replied. “This missile came from Arsal over there. They have a different religion there.”

Probably not. No one I met in Arsal heard any rocket fired from their town. But there are corpses aplenty in the Bekaa valley these days: dozens of them – at least 110 dead in the past 10 days alone, according to the most reliable Hezbollah supporter in Baalbek – for these are the “martyrs” of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s new campaign to help the Syrian regime re-take Qusayr from the rebels.
[…]

It was not clear to what extent news of what had happened in Baida and Ras al-Nabaa traveled along the coast. In the town of Banias, people were too nervous to discuss the topic. In Latakia, the news traveled only in hushed conversation among the Sunni Muslims. Sadeq, the Alawite activist, said the Alawite community was “in denial about it”.

“They believe it was a fight against terrorists from Chechnya or something like that,” he said.

But there is little doubt that details of the massacre are known among the ranks of Syrian intelligence.

In Tartous, a hefty, tattooed man who works for state intelligence, “in the cyber security branch”, and is a member of the pro-government Shabbiha militia, said his chain of command knew exactly what had unfolded in Baida and Ras al-Nabaa.

“It was the regime loyalists who did it, from the surrounding Alawite villages,” said the official, who did not want to give his name. “But they were not acting under orders. They carried it out on their own accord.”

“The leadership has all the names of the perpetrators, but now is not the time to punish them for the crime.”

Asked if the idea of an Alawite state sounded viable to the intelligence community, he said the idea is often discussed.

“But the leadership definitely rejects it. It would be the absolute worst case scenario, an independent Alawite-loyalist state,” he said.

Syria: rebels cling on to Qusayr
A major assault by Syrian regime troops and fighters from the Lebanese Shia militia Hizbollah has failed to dislodge rebels from the key town of Qusayr, 10 days after it began, accounts and videos from both sides suggest.

The Assad regime predicted a speedy victory after it attempted to storm Qusayr near the Lebanese border a week last Sunday, claiming to have almost immediately taken 80 per cent of the town.
Videos posted from the rebel side in recent days suggest that in fact they are now tied down in the east side of Qusayr and on the outskirts elsewhere. Accosrding to their own and Hizbollah accounts, the attack was stymied by Syrian rebels who booby-trapped the town’s entrances and emerged from tunnels to ambush attackers who thought they had fought their way to the centre.

——————————————–
the rebels tricked Hezbollah, letting them think they were on some type of blitzkrieg, they let them come all the way to the center of Qusayr, and ambushed them killing hundreds of Hezbollah and Assad troops and driving them back with their tails tucked in between their legs

“Bring them together in the fighting, not the thinking!” the Libyan said. “You practice your Salafism and kept it to yourself. Let a Christian for example, practice his Christianity and keep it to himself, it’s nobody’s business.”
“This is superficial talk!” the Syrian retorted.
“No, it’s not. That means that unfortunately, you will not achieve your aims.”
. . .
“What is happening with us is that we have people outside [in exile] who are working on politics, who are not tied to us on the ground at all,” the man from the Islamic Front said. “Secondly, because they derive their legitimacy from overseas, they stay overseas. They are each tied to a particular country. So these people are obstacles because the international community until now is insisting on using them and a political solution. But to us, the solution is military and the people who are going to undertake it are the ones who are going to be important after the fall of the regime. That’s why, if the revolution is weakened militarily, there will be no solution, the fighting will continue on some level until one side or the other will be wiped out.”
. . .
Syria’s various rebel groups may not be as united as some in the international community would like them to be, but at the moment they have common purpose — to bring down Assad, and to try and secure the weapons to do so. Libyan guns are a means to that end, but getting them across into Syria, especially the advanced anti-aircraft systems, will also require a united decision from the international community. Which will happen first, if at all? Rebel unity, or an international decision to robustly arm the opposition? In the meantime, the rebels are trying to do so on their own.

I arrived in Damascus from Lattakia yesterday. The scene from Duma to Harasta along the highway is a war zone. One SAA tank was burning in the middle of the highway. I guess we arrived couple hours late for the action. Surprisingly, everyone seems very calm and there is no carnage, except those damaged and destroyed civilian vehicles plus a burning tank and a destroyed tank on roadside. SAA soldiers are still drinking coffee at their posts and watching the situation around.

Just less than 1 mile further close to the city, sign of war disappears and bustling urban life is vibrant. We just need to admire human spirits and psychology. People here in Damascus have become more used to the daily “inconvenience” of this war. If there is an explosion, people would check for damage one block away and people two blocks away will just mind their own business. People got hardened up by numerous terrorists attacks and some even got blasé. The rebels probably need to increase their terrifying tactics 10 times more to really terrorize Damascenes with their current mentalities.

There seems to be a twin bombing as I was about to write this. Two thick column of smoke are rising high. Ambulance and fire engines are rushing on “express lane” with wailing by machine and shouting by emergency workers on board.

During the night, shooting is rare. But shelling is more regular throughout. That no longer bothers sleep. People no longer raise their alert from shelling or boom sound of fighter jets. If you know those assaults are from the side which can ensure safety and security, you somehow would find assurance in them.

SAA have started big operation to regain territory in Aleppo. I didn’t expect the operation would be materialized so quickly. I suppose SAA are very determined and confident with sophisticate planning.

What has been happening militarily in Damascus looks like constant skirmishs even though the rebels still have strength to make the Damascus-Homs highway a dangerous route. The fighting in Duma and Harasta seems more like a containment strategy by SAA. I guess there are some reasons for that considering the locations and populations of those two suburban towns.

If the ‘revolution’ has become a monster and it did not succeed to take the power, just imagine what it would have been if it actually took power. Their leaders are rotten to the bones.
Thank God that Bashar al Assad and the proud Syrian people were able to resist this perverted gang of egomaniac a-lickers.

AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian official says nearly 60,000 Syrian refugees have left the kingdom to go back home, some to fight President Bashar Assad’s regime and others because living conditions in their camp became too difficult.

OR… because many Syrian areas under the Syrian Army are now safer for the women and children that makes the bulk of the refugees

Which rebels on the ground? Are they not even one faction to be represented. Who is the “Revolutionary forces” leadership? Are they under Salim Idriss? al Aqidi? What did Moaz Al Khatib do all that time? Instead of writing on his FB, wouldn’t it been better to know who are the non-Nusra rebels? Does the CIA know?

Rebels on the ground in Syria have launched a blistering attack on the Syrian opposition coalition outside the country.

A statement issued by the Revolutionary Movement in Syria said the coalition had failed to represent the Syrian revolution….

This negativity has led to the blatant interference of international and regional parties without respect to the national will. The joint statement by four leading rebel groups inside Syria says the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SC) is unable to fulfil its obligations due to “ongoing discord”. Issued in the name of the Revolutionary Movement, the statement called for at least half the Coalition’s leadership bodies to be made up of “revolutionary forces”.

It is the clearest sign yet of the total disarray of the opposition leadership, as it faces the challenge posed by the Russian and American call to negotiate with the Syrian regime, says the BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut.

As to Bishara, he was misled and now he must be shocked to know that he was befriending the terrorist Hasan and the murderous Bashar. Never too late for repentance!

Dawoud,

My understanding is that Azmi Bashara was actually helping a sworn enemy of Israel, despite all that he accomplished, freely, as an Israeli citizen. He put the lives of Israelis in danger. This was his decision.

I hope that you, Mr. A.P., would also repent and realize that occupying and colonizing somebody else’s lands is immoral and wrong!

Dawoud,

Israelis and Jews have nothing to apologize for. Several opportunities for peace and co-existence have been on the table. Even today. Even you cannot tell me where Israel’s borders are located.

I know that you are Jewish, and I have a lot of respect for Judaism and religions (including Shia Islam, although I despise ONLY the Shias who support the murderous dictator). You and I could be real friends and enjoy talking about peace and justice while drinking coffee at Starbucks!

Thank you Dawoud. I share the same freedoms you and your people do. I have nothing against Shia Islam or Sunni Islam or any other religion. I take it on a case-by-case level. Both Hezbollah and Hamas represent intolerance just like the arab despots who have run their countries into the ground.

Meanwhile, Arabs and Jews are living and working together rather peacefully in Israel. Despite the chaos surrounding them. A glimmer of hope in a sea of despair. I hope we’ve seen the worst of the destruction Iran, Assad and Nasrallah have planned for the ME, but I’m not sure.

Thank you for posting those uplifting news about AlQusayr. Inshallah all the Lebanese invaders return in coffins or never returned. Inshallah the glee of Hassan vowing victory over the bodies of women, children and civilians meet its divine match.

MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti) – Four regiments of S-300 air defense systems have been deployed at the Ashuluk firing range in southern Russia as part of another snap combat readiness check of the Russian armed forces, the Defense Ministry said.

The regiments were airlifted on Thursday by military transport planes to designated drop zones where they will carry out a variety of missions simulating the defense of the Russian airspace from massive attacks by “enemy” missiles and aircraft.

“The missions will be carried out in conditions of heavy electronic warfare to test the capabilities of the air defense units to the highest limit,” the ministry said.

A total of 8,700 personnel, 185 warplanes and 240 armored vehicles are involved in the three-day exercise, overseen by Col. Gen. Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Directorate.

The surprise alert exercise, ordered by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, is part of a series of random checks of the Russian armed forces that began in February.

The previous two checks revealed a number of systemic shortcomings, in particular in the Central and Southern Military Districts, the Airborne Assault Forces (VDV) and military transport aviation units.

Alert duty officers in some military units demonstrated a slow response to processing orders via automated combat command and control systems, especially in the airborne forces and at the 201st military base in Tajikistan.

Other problems included poor accuracy in firing, especially by tanks and infantry fighting vehicle crews.

The Defense Ministry said in February that random inspections will now be conducted on a regular basis to insure constant combat readiness of the armed forces.

The Lebanese Army Command Guidance Directorate issued a communiqué in which it reported “On Tuesday 28/05/2013 at 6:00 p.m., two “Israeli” drones violated Lebanese air-space, executed circular flight over the south regions and Beirut and its suburbs; and then left consecutively where the last left today (Wednesday)at 02:10 a.m. heading towards the occupied territories.”

Israeli bulldozers escorted by military vehicles and drones entered the Gaza Strip and raided agricultural land on Wednesday, locals told Ma’an news agency.

According to the WAFA news agency, three military bulldozers flanked by four tanks and seven military vehicles crossed into a border area in central Gaza near the al-Bureij refugee camp at around 6 am, penetrating 300 meters into fields and leveling agricultural lands, witnesses said.

Israeli drones were hovering at a low distance during the incident, locals added, with Israeli forces firing smoke bombs.

An Israeli army spokesman said there was “routine activity along the fence,” without providing further details.

Israeli forces regularly raid and raze land near the border in the Gaza Strip and prevent residents from reaching their land.

TEHRAN, (SANA) – The Friends of Syria conference kicked off on Wednesday in the Iranian capital of Tehran, with delegations from 40 countries participating in the conference under the headline of “political solution and regional stability.”

In his opening speech, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that this conference constitutes an important step for resolving the crisis in Syria, noting that the previous Iranian initiative in this regard wasn’t implemented due to foreign interference, adding that Iran’s initiatives are all in the framework of respecting Syrian sovereignty.

Salehi pointed out that Iran proposed a six-point plan for resolving the crisis in Syria, in addition to supporting Moscow’s efforts in this regard, stressing the need for not allowing foreign interference in Syria and that the sides claiming to want democracy for the Syrian people must let them decide their destiny on their own.

He warned that what is happening in Syria will destabilize the region and the world, and that violence and delaying the political solution isn’t in any country’s interest.

Salehi also suggested forming a communication group to find a political solution for the crisis, stressing the necessity of stopping the inflow of weapons to the terrorists in Syria and establish groundwork for preventing foreign forces from entering it.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Flash. Explosive. Sen. McCain poses with terrorists in Syria
New TV aired an explosive report. Its correspondent, Nawal Birri, who has covered the story of the kidnapping of Lebanese pilgrims in Syria, recognized the men standing with Sen. McCain in the picture. They are none other than the captors themselves. The families of the hostages, some of whom were kidnapped with them before being released, also recognized the men as the captors. The picture was taken in `A’zaz, where the hostages are being held.

She won’t be made famous. Her name is Yara `Abbas and she was a reporter for Syrian regime TV. She was shot by the heroes of the Syrian “revolution” and there was no coverage of her death: neither in the Arabic press or the Western press. Imagine if she was shot by the other side. Imagine if she worked for a pro-Syrian “revolution” TV. This is her last report

Following recommendations from Mat, I am no longer posting embedded clips. This is an interview with Asmi Bishara . Sorry, I failedhttp://pulsemedia.org/2013/05/29/azmi-bishara-on-syria/
The subtitled last few minutes of a Jazeera Arabic interview with the great Palestinian thinker, in which Azmi expresses his disgust with those who fail to recognise the incredible revolutionary spirit of the Syrian people. “The Syrian people are the ones who turned out to be strong!” he exclaims. “An admirable, heroic, great people! In the face of planes and tanks and artillery. I salute the people of al-Qusair! … This is what we ought to be impressed by!”http://youtu.be/A3lfLp7RbH0

For a president that is executing Bush’s “war on terror” against Al-Qaeda and “it’s affiliates,” it seems odd that President Obama has targeted the secular Syrian government for “regime change.”

Equally odd is that Obama’s strongest military ally on the ground in Syria- the best equipped and effective fighting force against the Syrian Government — is Jabhat al-Nusra, a group that has affiliated itself with al-Qaeda, and aims to turn Syria into an extremist Islamic state that enforces a fundamentalist version of Sharia law.

It’s difficult to know exactly how al-Nursa received its guns, but one can make an educated guess. For example, The New York Times explained in detail how the CIA has been in a massive arms trafficking operation that has already funneled thousands of tons of guns from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Syria:

“The C.I.A. role in facilitating the [weapons] shipments… gave the United States a degree of influence over the process [of weapon distribution]…American officials have confirmed that senior White House officials were regularly briefed on the [weapons] shipments.”

Where are the guns winding up in this massive arms trafficking operation? An important question to ask is: “Which rebels in Syria have guns and which ones don’t?

The Guardian reports :

“The [secular] Free Syrian Army’s shortage of weapons and other resources compared with [jihadist] Jabhat al-Nusra is a recurrent theme… ‘If you join al-Nusra, there is always a gun for you but many of the FSA brigades can’t even provide bullets for their fighters,’…3,000 FSA [Free Syrian Army] men have joined al-Nusra in the last few months, mainly because of a lack of weapons and ammunition…Al-Nusra fighters rarely withdraw for shortage of ammunition…”

While it’s difficult to know if CIA trafficked guns are going directly or indirectly to al-Nursa, it’s extremely likely that these guns are going directly into the hands of ideological cousins of al-Nursa, since the Syrian rebels are completely dominated by Islamic extremists.

For example, when the Economist magazine was outlining the most important fighting groups in Syria, “Who’s Who in the Syrian Battlefield,” they noted with regret that the only important non-Islamist group was in the Kurdish areas, which is virtually an autonomous zone. As far as the secular U.S.-backed fighting group, The Supreme Military Command, the Economist conceded it “has little control on the ground.” Keep in mind that the Economist is very much in favor of a U.S.-NATO military intervention in Syria.

The New York Times also confirmed the complete dominance of extremists on the rebel side:

“Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.”

Thus, the minority of secular rebel fighters are not leading the civil war and will not be in power if Assad falls. Instead, honest Syrian revolutionaries will instantly fall victim to the extremists, who will immediately proceed to a mopping-up mission of their former allies.

It’s now clear that Obama’s foreign policy in Syria is actively encouraging terrorism. Many rebel-controlled areas in Syria are now new safe havens for terrorists, and there have been hundreds of terrorist bombing attacks against the Syrian government, many of which have targeted civilian areas.

While the U.S. is pouring arms into the jihadist-controlled areas, they have also downplayed the atrocities committed by these rebels, which are well documented on Youtube and include a multitude of war crimes that include beheadings, group execution of prisoners, ethnic cleansing , and the recent episode where a famous rebel commander was videotaped mutilating a dead Syrian solider and eating his heart.

By minimizing this barbarism the Obama administration ensures that it will continue, since the extremists are empowered by U.S. support and are shielded in the U.S. media and protected from international political pressures.

One question the U.S. media never thinks of asking is: Where did all these Islamic extremists come from and why? The Sunni Islamic opposition inside Syria has long been religiously moderate, implying that many of the extremists are foreigners.

The ideological source of this extremism came from Saudi Arabian religious figures and their allies, who use Islam as a political tool to target nations “unfriendly” to Saudi Arabia and the United States. The most glaring example of this in regard to Syria was the Fatwa (official interpretation/statement) issued by 107 Islamic scholars that denounced the Syrian government and encouraged Muslims to fight against it. The statement essentially encouraged jihad, though the word wasn’t mentioned explicitly.

The statement includes:

“It is a duty for all Muslims to support the revolutionaries in Syria [against the government] “so that they can successfully complete their revolution and attain their rights and their freedom.”

The hypocrisy of such a statement is almost too glaring: the many Saudi figures who signed the document that want “freedom” in Syria are not demanding freedom in Saudi Arabia, by far the country with the least amount of freedoms in the world.
With Saudi Arabia and Qatar providing guns to the Syrian rebels — with help from the CIA — the Saudi religious figures attached to the Saudi regime give religious/political support by misleading devout Muslims to flock to Syria to attack a country of Muslims, thus creating the giant sectarian divisions we now see throughout the Islamic world.

The vast majority of this Islamic sectarian warfare is exported by Saudi Arabia, which funds radical Islamic schools all over the Middle East that attract the downtrodden of these countries by providing basic social services that the host country is too poor — or unwilling — to provide. There is an informative chapter on this dynamic in Vijay Prashad’s excellent book, A People’s History of the Third World.

Now the debate among U.S.-NATO countries is whether to give more sophisticated weaponry to the extremist-dominated rebels in Syria. The Obama Administration is pressuring the European Union to drop its arms embargo on Syria so that a new torrent of weapons can flood the country (apparently the CIA operations haven’t yet completely drenched Syria with guns).

In response to the “drop the embargo” discussion, Oxfam intelligently responded by saying:

“Sending arms to the Syrian opposition won’t create a level playing field. Instead, it risks further fueling an arms free-for-all where the victims are the civilians of Syria. Our experience from other conflict zones tells us that this crisis will only drag on for far longer if more and more arms are poured into the country.”

One EU diplomat gave a scathing rebuke to the Obama Administration’s claim that it could ensure that new weapons wouldn’t wind up in “the wrong hands” in Syria:

“It would be the first conflict where we pretend we could create peace by delivering arms,” the diplomat said. “If you pretend to know where the weapons will end up, then it would be the first war in history where this is possible. We have seen it in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Weapons don’t disappear; they pop up where they are needed.”

In Syria the weapons are needed by those doing the brunt of the fighting. Again, the al-Nursa extremists are widely acknowledged to be the most effective fighting force against the Syrian government, the guns will thus flow to them.

Obama has taken the saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” to irrational heights, and in so doing is helping to produce a new generation of Islamic extremists that will help fuel the U.S.-led never-ending “war on terror.” The real intention of the War on Terror is not to stop terrorists, but to target nation states that are opposed to U.S. foreign policy: Iraq and Libya — like Syria — were both secular countries at the time of their being invaded; Afghanistan was invaded even though the vast majority of those involved in the 9-11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia. There was no terrorist problem in Iraq before the U.S. invaded, just like there was no terrorist problem in Syria before the U.S.-backed rebels came onto the scene.

The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad. Parts of the scheme are outlined in a classified, two-page document that says that the U.S. already is “supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora Syrian activists” in Europe. The document bluntly expresses the hope that “these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of actions for all anti-Assad activists.”

The document says that Syria’s legislative elections, scheduled for March 2007, “provide a potentially galvanizing issue for… critics of the Assad regime.” To capitalize on that opportunity, the document proposes a secret “election monitoring” scheme, in which “internet accessible materials will be available for printing and dissemination by activists inside the country [Syria] and neighboring countries.” The proposal also calls for surreptitiously giving money to at least one Syrian politician who, according to the document, intends to run in the election. The effort would also include “voter education campaigns” and public opinion polling, with the first poll “tentatively scheduled in early 2007.”

American officials say the U.S. government has had extensive contacts with a range of anti-Assad groups in Washington, Europe and inside Syria. To give momemtum to that opposition, the U.S. is giving serious consideration to the election-monitoring scheme proposed in the document, according to several officials. The proposal has not yet been approved, in part because of questions over whether the Syrian elections will be delayed or even cancelled. But one U.S. official familiar with the proposal said: “You are forced to wonder whether we are now trying to destabilize the Syrian government.”

Some critics in Congress and the Administration say that such a plan, meant to secretly influence a foreign government, should be legally deemed a “covert action,” which by law would then require that the White House inform the intelligence committees on Capitol Hill. Some in Congress would undoubtedly raise objections to this secret use of publicly appropriated funds to promote democracy.

The proposal says part of the effort would be run through a foundation operated by Amar Abdulhamid, a Washington-based member of a Syrian umbrella opposition group known as the National Salvation Front (NSF). The Front includes the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that for decades supported the violent overthrow of the Syrian government, but now says it seeks peaceful, democratic reform. (In Syria, however, membership in the Brotherhood is still punishable by death.) Another member of the NSF is Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former high-ranking Syrian official and Assad family loyalist who recently went into exile after a political clash with the regime. Representatives of the National Salvation Front, including Abdulhamid, were accorded at least two meetings earlier this year at the White House, which described the sessions as exploratory. Since then, the National Salvation Front has said it intends to open an office in Washington in the near future.

Please tell me how this started with peaceful demonstrations of “poor, innocent Syrians who just wanted reforms” when TIME magazine blew the whistle on anti-Syrian covert operations supporting the Muslim Brotherhood against Assad as far back as 2006?

Even Josh Landis discussed it then:

Others detect another goal for the proposed policy. “Ever since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which Syria opposed, the Bush Administration has been looking for ways to squeeze the government in Damascus,” notes Joshua Landis, a Syria expert who is co-director of the Center for Peace Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “Syria has appeared to be next on the Administration’s agenda to reform the greater Middle East.” Landis adds: “This is apparently an effort to gin up the Syrian opposition under the rubric of ‘democracy promotion’ and ‘election monitoring,’ but it’s really just an attempt to pressure the Syrian government” into doing what the U.S. wants. That would include blocking Syria’s border with Iraq so insurgents do not cross into Iraq to kill U.S. troops; ending funding of Hizballah and interference in Lebanese politics; and cooperating with the U.N. in the investigation of the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Senior Syrian government officials are considered prime suspects in Hariri case.

“Inshallah all the Lebanese invaders return in coffins or never returned. Inshallah the glee of Hassan vowing victory over the bodies of women, children and civilians meet its divine match.”

Tara, I am quoting you above because I like your comment and usage of “Lebanese INVADERS!” Please try to add the valid “terrorist” label to this: “Lebanese terrorist invaders!”

Thanks

116. AKBAR PALACE

I still like you as a person, and respect your religion and all religion. Azmi Bishar didn’t go to Syria/Lebanon to pass information. He went there to express solidarity with bombarded civilians, including his dispossessed Palestinian refugees. He also attended conferences and intellectual events. Now, that he see that both Bashar al-Assad and Hasan Nasr-Statn killing innocent Syrians, he has turned against them! Nothing contradictory about Bishar, my Christian Palestinian brother (I am Muslim). Although I wish we can be friends, I just can’t be your friend AT THIS TIME because friends do things in common: play soccer, Xbox, tag a dictator in the nose game :-), etc.
But, I will not like you describing Israel, which is now in my view and that of both the PA’s Saeb Erekat and Haaretz Israeli Journalist Gideon Levy said, an “apartheid state,” as a bastion for peace, equality, and justice!!!!!!!!!
Good luck cousin! You know that we Arabs call Jews cousins-and we are both Semitic people. An anti-Arab person CAN be called anti-Semites.

You know that we Arabs call Jews cousins-and we are both Semitic people.

Dawoud,

Glad you’re not an “anti-Semite”! 😉

Anyway, I found an interesting article. Please feel free to comment on it. It doesn’t seem like good news:

Opposition in Syria slams coalition in exile ahead of peace talks

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Opposition groups on the ground in Syria slammed their counterparts in exile for undermining the rebellion and lacking legitimacy, laying bare chronic divisions among the foes of President Bashar al-Assad ahead of a planned peace conference.
A meeting of the exiled National Coalition members in Turkey has so far failed to agree to attend the Geneva conference, provisionally planned for June, or who should represent them, and is deadlocked over Western-backed proposals to widen its membership.
Dismayed by the “ongoing discord”, a statement by four leading opposition groups in Syria dismissed the meeting in Istanbul as a “feeble attempt to add persons … that have no real impact on the revolution” and said at least half the coalition’s leadership bodies should be made of “revolutionary forces”.
In what it called a “final warning” to the Islamist-dominated coalition, the statement, issued in the name of the Revolutionary Movement in Syria, said it could not “bestow legitimacy upon any political body that subverts the revolution”.
The coalition failure to agree even the basic structure of its membership bodes ill for a unified stance on the peace talks, which aim to agree a transitional government and an end to a two-year conflict that has killed 80,000 people.
“There is a daunting realization that the opposition has to get its act together before Geneva, otherwise the Assad team will run rings around us,” a senior opposition coalition source at the talks in Istanbul said.
Diplomats say the Geneva talks, which Assad’s government has agreed in principle to attend, could be held in mid-June, but the opposition has yet to commit to showing up, and officials in the Middle East say it will be pushed back to July.
“Turkey is not expecting the conference to take place before the end of June as the opposition groups have to decide on whether they want to attend. This may take some time,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Gumrukcu said.
While the 60-member coalition has bickered over Western-backed proposals to dilute its Islamist domination with the addition of a liberal bloc, Assad’s forces have been pressing a fierce counter-offensive on the ground.
Backed by ally Hezbollah, whose unyielding support contrasts with Western concern about arming a rebel force that includes al Qaeda-linked brigades, Assad’s army is fighting to dislodge rebels from a stronghold on the Lebanese border.
His troops have already pushed back rebels in the southern province of Deraa and retaken some outlying areas east of Damascus, consolidating their hold from the capital up to the coastal heartlands of his minority Alawite sect.
Russia, which has shielded Assad diplomatically since the Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011, says it will deliver an advanced S-300 air defense system despite U.S. and French objections, saying it would deter “hotheads” intent on foreign intervention.
DIVIDED OPPOSITION
Assad’s opponents have suffered from deep-seated rifts since the start of the uprising. The opposition in exile has little influence over activists on the ground, while the only authority that Syrian army defectors in neighboring Turkey and Jordan have over the hundreds of rebel brigades scattered across Syria stems from their ability to channel weapons from abroad.
Ideological differences between Islamists and nationalists are exacerbated by the barely overlapping ambitions of backers as diverse as the Gulf Arab monarchies, the United States and Europe.
At the heart of the stalemate in Istanbul is a rivalry between regional backers of the rebels centered around Qatar, which supports the Islamist coalition members, and Saudi Arabia, which is wary of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
The addition of a liberal bloc of more than 20 seats, led by Christian opposition campaigner Michel Kilo, had been intended to ease the Islamist grip over the coalition. Kilo has so far been offered just five seats.
The statement from the opposition in Syria said the failure of the coalition had opened the door to “blatant interference” by outside powers and demanded at least half the coalition seats for its own representatives.
“There is no doubt that the Syrian Coalition’s leadership has failed to fulfill its responsibility to represent the great Syrian people’s revolution at the organizational, political and humanitarian level,” the statement said.
International envoys sought to break the impasse in Istanbul, with Saudi Prince Salman bin Sultan meeting Kilo to discuss his demands for representation.
Kamal al-Labwani, an ally of Kilo and a senior member of the coalition, had already left Istanbul in protest at what he regarded as the domination of Qatari-backed coalition Secretary-General Mustafa al-Sabbagh.
If a deal is not struck, coalition insiders say the liberal wing will not participate in peace talks, further threatening the ability of the coalition to speak for the opposition.
Salman was due to meet other international envoys from the United States, France, Jordan and Qatar who flew to Istanbul to add to the pressure to solve the crisis.
“If you take the opposition of Syria, including the minorities, and the moderate Sunnis, they are the ones who formed the majority,” a member of Kilo’s bloc said. “If this is not represented in the coalition it will remain a deeply flawed party,” the source said.
The coalition had meant to discuss a new leadership in Istanbul, including the fate of provisional Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto, who has not been able to form a provisional government in exile since being appointed on March 19.
George Sabra, the acting head of the coalition, appeared intent on dropping the membership issue and proceeding to electing a new leadership. But other senior opposition officials said such a move would only deepen divisions.
“If they go ahead with choosing a new leadership, they are setting the stage for a war between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and nobody wants this,” one of the officials said.
(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker in Ankara; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Will Waterman)

I was so fuc@in$ dump because 3 years after reading what King Abdallah said about Iran in the Wikileaks’ leaked dip. cables: “cut the head of the snake [Iran],” I rejected his statement and defended Iran. Now, after Iran has helped Bashar a-Assad and Hasan Nasr-Satan kill over 100,000 Syrians and dispossessing 4.5 million, I feel that the Saudi king was 1000% CORRECT. Yes, cut the head of the snake!

By Ross Colvin
WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:18am EST
(Reuters) – King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly exhorted the United States to “cut off the head of the snake” by launching military strikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables.

A copy of the cable dated April 20, 2008, was published in the New York Times website on Sunday after being released by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. The classified communication between the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and Washington showed the Saudis feared Shi’ite Iran’s rising influence in the region, particularly in neighboring Iraq.

The United States has repeatedly said that the military option is on the table, but at the same time U.S. military chiefs have made clear they view it as a last resort, fearing it could ignite wider conflict in the Middle East.

The April 2008 cable detailed a meeting between General David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, and then U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and King Abdullah and other Saudi princes.

At the meeting, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir “recalled the King’s frequent exhortations to the U.S. to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons program,” the cable said.

“He told you to cut off the head of the snake,” Jubeir was reported to have said.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, however, pushed for tougher sanctions instead, including a travel ban and further restrictions on bank lending, although he did not rule out the need for military action.

The WikiLeaks documents also show U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes any military strike on Iran would only delay its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by one to three years, the Times reported.

DAMASCUS, May 29 (Xinhua) — Fire broke out in one of the oldest popular markets in Syria’s capital Damascus on Wednesday, sending a gray mushroom-like smoke into the sky, witnesses and the state-media said.

The state-run SANA news agency said the fire erupted at an old house in the Sarouja market, adding that it has spread and gutted several commercial shops.

Firefighters rushed to the scene to extinguish the blaze, the report said, giving no further details about casualties.

Other media reports said the fire broke out at one of several cafes in the area and spread out.

Yes, while Syrians inside Syria are dying and being terrorized by Iran/Bashar/Nasr-Satan, the exiled opposition are arguing in comfortable hotels with air condition and delicious food! Anybody would be angered. In any case, the real opposition is the one that is fighting Bashar inside Syria, and the Syrians who are being bombnarded while sleeping in their houses. I just saw pictures of injured dead children in al-Qasir’s hospital/clinic! Also, the suffering Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, Iraq (which GWB gave on a golden plate to Iran), and Nasr-Satan-occupied Lebanon!

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian grassroots activists threatened Wednesday to cut ties with the main exile-based opposition group after it got bogged down in a week of internal power struggles instead of devising a strategy for possible peace talks with President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Such talks are to be launched with a U.N.-sponsored international conference in Geneva, tentatively set for next month, though there’s no firm date, no agenda and no list of participants.

The latest signs of disarray in the notoriously fractured Syrian opposition raised more troubling questions about the Geneva conference, including who would represent those trying to bring down Assad and what mandate would they have.

bogged down in a week of internal power struggles instead of devising a strategy for possible peace talks with President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Such talks are to be launched with a U.N.-sponsored international conference in Geneva, tentatively set for next month, though there’s no firm date, no agenda and no list of participants.

The latest signs of disarray in the notoriously fractured Syrian opposition raised more troubling questions about the Geneva conference.

The main political opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, began meetings a week ago in Istanbul, Turkey, to expand its decision-making bodies, choose a new leader and devise a joint position on the Geneva talks.

Instead, the group has spent most of that time on the membership issues, with rivalries between Qatar and Saudi Arabia over influence apparently playing out in the background.

On Wednesday, the Revolutionary Movement in Syria, an umbrella organization of activist groups from across the country, issued what it called a final warning, threatening to withdraw its backing for the coalition if it doesn’t come up with a political strategy.

“We have waited in vain for many months for the National Coalition to take concrete steps, and offered its leadership multiple chances to do so,” the activists said in a statement. “The reality is that there is no doubt that the … leadership has failed to fulfill its responsibility to represent the great Syrian people’s revolution at the organizational, political, and humanitarian levels.”

The loss of support would have little practical effect, but would deal another symbolic blow to Syria’s main opposition group, which has long been accused of being out of touch with those on the ground in Syria.

Many of their sons and daughters are now in the West hysterically calling for ‘social justice’ when their fathers and brothers are the thieves that colluded with the corrupted elements of the regime to suck the nation from its wealth.
They have the easy part.

“Many of their sons and daughters are now in the West hysterically calling for ‘social justice’ when their fathers and brothers are the thieves that colluded with the corrupted elements of the regime”

As opposed to the hypocritical callous fools that call the actions of brutally massacring innocent civilians a heroic and valiant act and deride the Western conspiracy while living in the West…

And blaming the ills that face Syria on the merchant Sunni class and “corrupted elements of the regime” is nothing but pure unadulterated filth. The responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of those that turned Syria into their fiefdom pretending they are our overlords, and decided to burn it with its inhabitants once the people resisted their rule.

Also, the suffering Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, Iraq (which GWB gave on a golden plate to Iran), and Nasr-Satan-occupied Lebanon

Dawoud,

Don’t get me started! I supported GWB and his regime change in Iraq for the very same reason we are asking for regime change in Syria.

Little did we know that it would become a political football. Obama, eager to show that the War in Iraq was a mistake, decided to insure its failure. He left Iraq without any sort of security arragement (!) and yes, basically handed the country over to Iran. What a jerk! Of course, you’d think the Iraqis could protect themselves; they had the opportunity.

So with America’s BAD experience in Iraq, who is to say the exact same thing wound NOT happen if we conducted regime change in Syria?

I thought you might be interested in this. Another example of American, Western and Zionist abuse of muslims:

“Mentally he is normal, but the child is shocked,” Tsarnaeva said after her six-minute conversation with Tsarnaev. “It was really hard to hear him and for him to hear me. The conversation was very quiet. It was my child. I know he is locked up like a dog, like an animal.”

I agree with you, and I don’t believe free Syrians will be puppets to anybody. I know that they will not have any relations with Iran, which is the main supplier of death of Syrians, until the Iranian regime is overthrown. I don’t believe that Syrians will take orders for Saudis, Qataris, nor anybody else. Syrians are too intelligent and educated to be anybody’s puppets.

P.S., I am well-known here to oppose all kind of foreign intervention in Syria-regardless of whether it’s Russian, Iranian, American, etc. ….I don’t believe that American boys (including my sons) should die to free Syria. Syrians should fight for their own country. However, giving weapons to Free Syrians is a moral obligation because they are fighting against a brutal murderous dictator. It’s different from Iran and Russia giving weapons to the dictator. Giving weapons to victims to defend their lives/honor/property is different than giving weapons to rapists, drug dealers, and killers!

We are on the same page. For some reason, Visitor was REALLY irritated at the US. I just think America learned the hard way, that they can’t fight wars for ME countries (except Kuwait, which is tiny and rich).

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad seized an air base in a village near the town of Qusair on Wednesday, in a major blow for rebels in their battle with government forces backed by Hezbollah fighters, state media said.

Assad’s troops and Hezbollah fighters already surround Qusair from three sides. Taking control of Dabaa village, to the north, would put the strategic town under siege from four sides and cut a main reinforcement line for the rebels.

“Our troops are now in full control of Dabaa air base,” Syrian state television said, after five hours of fierce fighting in and around it.

Diplomats Ford, Davutoglu and (?) from France rushed to Istanbul to attempt to save the opposition meeting from a complete disaster. The SNC showed that it is criminally incompetent and hopeless. It should be toppled to save Syria/

A string of top diplomats arrived on Wednesday at a stalled Istanbul meeting of Syria’s divided opposition, in what looked like a last-ditch effort to break a deadlock in the National Coalition.

Dissidents say the chaotic meeting has been deadlocked by internal bickering as well as conflicting pressures from key backers of the revolt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France, Turkey and the United States.

These nations, which have conflicting visions for the opposition, sent in top representatives on Wednesday, as the meeting dragged into its seventh day, four days longer than was scheduled.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and a top French diplomat on Syria were at the meeting along with a Saudi intelligence official and top Qatari diplomat.
….
Veteran secular Syrian dissident Michel Kilo, a Christian writer and rights activist who was voted into the Coalition and has been at the heart of debate this past week, also arrived at the talks.

Saudi Arabia, which backed Kilo’s bid to join the Coalition, wants the group to expand in order to water down the influence of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood.

Opponents supported by regional rival Qatar, including the Muslim Brotherhood, have resisted the Saudis’ move.

A week into the chaotic meeting, dissidents have failed to agree on any key issues, chief among them the proposed peace conference that Washington and Moscow are trying to organise in Geneva next month.

“Things are not moving. The opposition has hit its worst crisis yet,” said a Coalition member on condition of anonymity, minutes before the international delegation arrived.

The Istanbul meeting was also supposed to choose a new Coalition president, agree on an interim government and vote in new members to join the group.

There is no surprise that Russia has delivered S-300 air defense systems to Syria. The US has been screaming for Assad to go for a long time and Russia has a naval base in Tartus. Guess what? Russia is not moving. There is finger pointing between the West and Russia but the political rhetoric is ignored by President Vladimir Putin as he calmly directs stability in the Middle East. His talent as a Judo expert became useful as he told Netanyahu, “We need to talk”. Russia was not happy when Israel fired into Damascus early May. The Israeli Prime Minister hastened to Russia last May 14 and did as he was told. He listened and understood that indeed there is a new Sheriff in town in the Middle East.

Turkey ranks worst among 26 OECD countries with regards to people’s happiness, and is failing to maintain high living standards in a number of areas.
…
In terms of relations with the community, jobs and employment, housing conditions and work-life balance, Turkish citizens experience the poorest quality in the OECD.

In total, it ranked among the worst five in eight different areas.

“When all of the categories are weighted equally, the top-performing country in the world is Australia, cited for its strong community spirit and high level of life satisfaction. The lowest-ranked country among those studied was Turkey, whose weak scores on the same two criteria dragged it below Mexico, Chile, and Brazil”

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West’s Unholy Alliance to Wreck and Exploit

Syria: Fog of proxy war and conflicting agendas

As furious fighting rages in Syria for control of Qusair, a border town of critical strategic importance, the dense and toxic fog of that country’s proxy war is spreading to Lebanon and Iraq. With Hezbollah becoming directly involved in the conflict to back Assad, the patchwork coalition of Syrian rebel groups and Jihadist foreign fighters, with al-Nusra in the lead, is loosing ground and on the defensive. Bashar al-Assad has three main objectives, which could now be obtained with the substantial and full commitment from Hezbollah. First, taking back Qusair would reopen a critical channel between Damascus and pro-Assad Alawite militias on the Mediterranean coast. Second, this would cut off the rebel-held areas between the north and south. Third, and perhaps most importantly, this is a way for Assad to gain a stronger hand before the peace conference organized by Russia and the United States, to take place in June. Meanwhile, Arabs and Muslims in general are killing each other and doing the bidding of Israel and the West in what could become a full-blown regional sectarian war between Sunnis on one side, and Shiites and Alawites on the other. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West are certainly strange bedfellows, and this is reflected by the state of the Syrian opposition “coalition.”

Hey reniere and Ann,
you stated that the conspiracy started sometime around “a decade ago”.
I think that s nearly obvious that a consiracy against Syria took and is
taking place. Will this fact shed new light two the two biggest events in the levante
in this period.
1. Was the Hariri murder the interlude in this conspiracy?
2. Keeping in mind that Assad was by far the most popular Arab leader in 2008 and 2009 according to the poll of CNNArab is it likely that the whole Gaza flotilla incident was merely a staged “PR” campaign to bolster Erdogan in the Arab world.

I don t think that McCain is bothered at all by the fact he hang around his kidnappers. By just looking at the faces of his “Syrian” guides it s more than obvious they are highly criminal – kidnapping could be regarded as their minor offenses.
It s sad that the IMHO just cause of demanding more freedom was hijacked by this bunch of Jihadists, NeoCons, Salafists and the ArmsIndustry who turned this into the uggliest most destructive civil war since PolPot.

“1. Was the Hariri murder the interlude in this conspiracy?
2. Keeping in mind that Assad was by far the most popular Arab leader in 2008 and 2009 according to the poll of CNNArab is it likely that the whole Gaza flotilla incident was merely a staged “PR” campaign to bolster Erdogan in the Arab world.”

Wow, those are some really deep thoughts there. Do you think JFK’s assassination was a prelude to this entire conspiracy? Who do you think came up with this conspiracy?

Personally I blame the Lebanese Jews, they should know Hummus is the bean and Mousaba7a is the dish!

ANd by saying that the citizins in Syria had a “just cause” for the uprising I don t mean to single out Assad, citizins of Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, the US, China, Saudi, etc.. pretty much all the countris in the world would have a just cause to protest against their respective gouvernments.

Mc Cain has crossed to Syria illegally. He should be sued in the USA for trespassing in a sovereign country.
Why bother? the guy has ridiculed himself enough.
The opposition did not even cheer his visit. They were humiliated. They want weapons, they got an aging Coca-Cola
The trouble is that it is “Zero” one.

It s more than obvious that Erdogan, Qatar, Saudis along were part of that.
Ad them the World powers who shaped any political movements in the past century in that region namely Britain, France and the US.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

It usally takes some 10-20 years for conspiracies on this larger scales to expose therefore we ve to orient ourselves on the patters of past conspiracies to understand the current ones.
We all remember the incubator lie which led to the first Gulf War led by Bush sen.
The hoax was planed and executed largely by the PR firm Hill & Knowlton which is known for its contacts to the State Department.

“the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign which was run by Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government. Following this, al-Sabah’s testimony has largely come to be regarded as wartime propaganda.”

Most of the people think that the “reform” movements Wahabism and Salafism belong to the Sunni current of Islam, but that s not true – most Hanafi, Shafi, Malaki sholls detested this movement.
Alone with their vast amounts of money the Saudi and Qatari gouvernments were able to buy legitimations in many countries.
Nowadays the Saudi gouvernment dominates most mosqus in Britain and the US.
Especially the theologians around the Oxford movement in the end of the 19th century helped to found the Salafi stream. A key figure was the mysterious occult Jamal Afghani.

Look at those pushing to send more weapons – UK and France, the former colonial powers. They hate Assad. Both of those nations have governments that kill their people via savage austerity. They have nothing to say about any other nation.

More weapons = more death.

Sending more weapons won’t tip the war to the rebels but it will cost lives and weaken Syria and that is the goal.

It is pretty clear the US is afraid of going “all in” with a No-Fly Zone etc. This is not Libya. Putin is president now not Medvedev.

Now the army is on the move and the regional players – like Iran and Hezbollah are committed to going “all in” and have resources that can be brought to bear on the West.

Rockets.

If anything starts Israel will be hit with 1000s of rockets. The Iron Dome was only %5 effective. This means 10s of 1000s of Israeli casualties. Yes, Israel has a superior air force but ROCKETS have changed the balance in the region. Israel’s foes were smart and defeated the IAF with rockets.

Kilo is correct the Opposition now is guilty for their dominance by one group which is not represented in Syria is helping the killing machine continue with its murder and destruction.

Not only did Kilo say so but so did the various Activists groups that actually have support and recognition inside Syria:

We have waited in vain for many months for the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SC) to take concrete steps, and offered its leadership multiple chances to do so. However, the reality is that there is no doubt that the SC’s leadership has failed to fulfill its responsibility to represent the great Syrian people’s revolution at the organizational, political, and humanitarian levels. The SC’s continued failure, particularly in the General Assembly, during the last week of meetings in Istanbul, deepens our conviction that the SC, in its current form, is unable to fulfill its obligations due to the ongoing discord among the different parties represented. This negativity has led to the blatant interference of international and regional parties without respect to the national will. The SC’s organizational capacity has deteriorated, and in reality, has far exceeded its original mandate as agreed upon during its founding. Given the SC’s dysfunction, we feel compelled to re-state our national responsibility as a revolutionary force, to honor the sacrifices of our people, and to fulfill their revolutionary aspirations, particularly in light of the challenges posed by the Geneva 2 conference and the decision-making process regarding the future of our nation and the region.

you re probb. to coined by the daily soap input you give to yourself. To a world where people, in this case Erdogan, gets out of a sudden all emotional and furious at someone and than a few months later works on a clandistine covert operation against his former best buddy, in this case Assad.
Motivated in both cases solely by his affinity for children and women in need Erdogan the sometimes irrational knight for the good cause is sometimes not capable to lengthen his temper?
Right
And in return, just in soap, also Israels Ayalon loses it, by having the Turkish Ambassodor to Israel seated on a lower seat.
You re really buying all that!
You should maybe start reading some Macciaveli and Hegel before trying to understand MidEast Affairs.http://irblog.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/israil-kriz-%C3%B6z%C3%BCr.jpg

The Price we are paying for every day the Syrian opposition spends in Turkish hotels arguing and quarrelling over their interests is: the life of two hundred martyrs. It seems they do not bother, as they are not the ones who are paying; it is the people of Syria. This is why our people have the right to tell them to step down.

In yesterdays ‘leaked’ 500 list the joke was Assad, not being the sharpest tool in the box, unwittingly selecting names that happen to be multiple accounts owned by a single individual thus some prominent regimists consequentially not making the final 500.

The Syrian National Coalition of opposition groups has released a statement on the anticipated “Geneva II” peace talks next month. The statement says the “head of the regime” must be “excluded from the political process” – but it is unclear to what extent the statement leaves room for the current Syrian government to participate in the planned Geneva talks:

The Syrian Coalition welcomes international efforts to find a political solution to the suffering Syrians have endured for over two years. Moreover, the Syrian Coalition wants to highlight its commitment to the revolution’s fundamentals and to the political framework approved on February 15th, 2013, which requires the head of the regime, security and military leadership to step down and be excluded from the political process.

The Syrian Coalition deems these goals necessary to lead to an effective political solution:

1. Halt the murder and destruction perpetrated by the regime.
2. Empower revolutionary forces to defend oppressed Syrian people.
3. Halt Iran and Hezbollah’s invasion of Syria and expel them from the country.

We stress that Syrian participation is needed to set a timetable for these solutions with the international community offering binding guarantees.

Finally, for these political efforts to succeed the international community and the Friends of Syria, in particular, must uphold their commitments to the Syrian people and revolution by ensuring their right to self-defense.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Isn t your sole storyline you sang the entire past almost two years, that an evil conspiracy of crypto-muslim Alawites in conjunction with Salvai-Iran, “HisBAss”(crypto-Homo?) and Maliki, spawn of Hell, started this whole mess in order to take revange of the innocent Sunni Arabs?

“Assad could have given every man, woman and child in Syria a little pony and they still would have attacked him.”

Yes. Correct. He could kiss their feet yet this will not work. People hates him. They want him gone, dead or alive. Preferably dead. Their slogan was “people wants the execution of the president”. I am glad it is finally setting in at least to some of his supporters. What was so difficult in getting that in? The question is would he get it too or is he still too delusional?

I have to laugh again at anyone complaining about Hezbollah. You didn’t mind when it was 1000s of Libyan filth or Tunisian filth or Chechen filth. That was okay. That wasn’t an invasion. Now that you’re seeing Syria’s true friends getting more deeply involved you’re all crying crocodile tears about it.

We are not making this up. The “Al-Faarooq Brigade” (yawn) commander, has issued an edict calling for the “execution” of all deserters from the FSA who abandoned Al-Qusayr and joined forces with the “infidel Shi’a of Hizbollah”. Specifically mentioned is Palestinian terrorist Bilaal Khayyaat who split from the ranks of the _______* in the northern part of the town and took his entourage with him. This is a clear sign that the mercenaries in this town are falling apart. It also proves what SyrPer told you days ago about mass defections and surrenders. Enjoy.

BEIRUT – The powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah called on Hamas members and officials who are still present in Lebanon to leave the country ‘immediately and within hours.’ The decision comes as a response to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s role in the ongoing war in Syria against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Media sources close to the Palestinian national liberation movement Fatah in Lebanon said a Hezbollah senior security official informed Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ali Baraka, that all of those related to Hamas on the Lebanese territory became have become unwelcome.

The military unit of Hamas has broken ties with former ally Syrian President Bashar Assad and has begun training members of the opposition’s Free Syrian Army in Damascus, according to a report by The Times of London.

Anonymous diplomatic sources told the Times, earlier this month, that members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were training Free Syrian Army units in the rebel-held neighborhoods of Yalda, Jaramana and Babbila in the Syrian capital.

“The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades have been training units very close to Damascus. These are specialists. They are really good,” a Western diplomat with contacts in both the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition told the London daily newspaper.

According to the Times, Hamas has been helping the rebels in digging a tunnel beneath Damascus in preparation for an attack on the city, a skill that Hamas has honed by constructing tunnels to smuggle supplies from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.

@ 194. SAMI
“Hey Majoos,
I was wrong before, you really can get even deeper. Especially after 4:20!
At one point I hope you just say no to drugs”

I don t know weather drugs would do it for you but you should deffinatly start looking for sth. to calm you down so you can have the patience for your due reading on political theory.
Your entire viewpoint you so far exposed is huge conglomeration of non-sense, slurs and immaturities.

Syria, the land of a thousand Guantanamo Bays (unimaginably extreme versions of). In fact for over four decades this land, rich in history, has been one big Guantanamo Bay (unimaginably extreme version of).

In its “final warning” to the exiled coalition leaders, four leading rebel groups inside Syria have slammed them for undermining the rebellion and lacking legitimacy.

The Movement members said they could not “bestow legitimacy upon any political body that subverts the revolution”.

“There is a daunting realization that the opposition has to get its act together before Geneva, otherwise the Assad team will run rings around us,” Reuters quoted a senior opposition coalition source at the talks in Istanbul as saying.

You all don t have to worry that there will be a shortage on arms on both sides.
Europe, the US, and the SAudi won t fail to do their part on one side

and Russia, Iran theres.
Is that really how low you all got that you all cherish to the further destruction of Syria. And Lebanon and Iraq after.
Entire cities, villages, lives are getting destroied and you all are getting all horny about new deliveries.
Shame on you all, you a a disgrace for humanity!

The above report mentions that the Syrian resistance in al-Qasir possesses 10 unclaimed corpses for terrorists from the Lebanese Shia terrorist party Hizbass. Maybe Hasan Nasr-Satan should go and claim them instead of videotaping cult-of-personality speeches!

The above report mentions that the Syrian resistance in al-Qasir possesses 10 unclaimed corpses for terrorists from the Shia Lebanese Shia party Hizbas$. Maybe Hasan Nasr-Satan should go and claim them instead of videotaping cult-of-personality speeches!

I didn t mean to insult you , I just want to emphasize that neither of the ones in power will suffer any loss out of this war.Not Nasrallah, not Assad, not Erdogan, not Thani nor any of the European/Russian organisators.
From what we saw the ones leading are not interested in a solution.
A forum like this should serve the regular citizins to build bridges and try to find an answer to this pointless suffering of so many people on all sides.

Hezbollah fighters have been invited by the UN recognized legitimate Syrian government to help getting rid of the vermin called Al Nusra.

The USA is doing exactly that when helping the Afghani army to get rid of the vermin called Al Qaeda.

The invaders and the vermin are the Sunni Islamists terrorists sent and funded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia and trained by Turkey who are threatening the Shias and Alawis of genocide in Syria and in Lebanon.

Are the Saudi Army ‘invaders’ in Bahrain? I haven’t heard the USA complaining about that

“when anyone not blinded by their deep hatred for Syrians ”
“slaughter of 100,000 ”
do you really solely blame Assad(shiites, Alawites, orth.Christians) for this?

According to the British Snack “Shop”so far more than 40.000 of the the ones “slaughtered” were Alawites.
An influx of more weapons will generate more and more deaths on all sides.

We will be followed by a generation of ophans, crippeled and a traumatized youth.
It s not only me claiming there was a conspiracy to start this war, it s evident. The extensive tunnel system which was used to smuggle arms in several syrian cities were not built overnight.
Weather it s justified to challange Assads rule in Syria is another matter but you certainly don t have to burn the entire country to archieve this goal.
Why do you think that a “good portion” of the rebels are drawn from so many other countries? No one wants to burn his country!
Following that logic people in the entire world would be legitamized to burn their countries. Or would you serriouly argue that Assad s rule over Syria was any more exploitive and ruthless than Putins Obamas, Camerons, SAuds, …?

It’s heating up within the opposition: The FSA gives an ultimatum of 24h to the SNC. Is the long-predicted disintegration of the opposition about to happen?

Fighters give ultimatum to Syrian opposition group

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
Syrian rebels fighting on the ground give an ultimatum to the opposition group in Istanbul to decide whether or not to expand to representation of the ‘revolutionary forces on the ground’

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) had given a deadline of only 24 hours, which was set to extend as of yesterday afternoon, to decide whether to agree on an expansion that would include representatives of the rebels.

“They [SNC] don’t want to give chairs to revolutionary forces on the ground. We gave them 24 hours to represent the revolutionary forces on the ground,” Louay al-Mokdad, political and media coordinator of the FSA, told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

“We are giving them time to change their mind. We want real steps from the Coalition and to work only for the Syrian revolution and the Syrian people,” said al-Mokdad, describing some of the Coalition members as “selfish.” “Some people inside the Syrian Coalition are selfish, sorry to say that. They are fighting for their chairs and their powers inside the Coalition, instead of for the Syrian people and the Syrian revolutionaries on the ground,” he added. Me

“The only genocide being documented at the moment is the repeated massacres of Sunnis.

And the real vermin are the ones cheering it on!”

Yes, Sami, and many of these immoral cheerleaders are commentators here!

We here a lot about the minority of Sunni Muslims terrorists, who clearly should be opposed and condemned. However, Sunni Muslims are also now the most persecuted people on earth. Syira is the worst example. But, look at what’s happening now in Mayanmar (Burma):

BANGKOK — Security forces on Wednesday struggled to bring peace to a northern city in Myanmar after Buddhist mobs set fire to a mosque, a Muslim school and shops, the latest outbreak of religious violence in Myanmar and a sign that radical strains of Buddhism may be spreading to a wider area of the country.
[…]

So, does “immediate” still mean “whenever and however and wherever?!!!!!!!!” I think so! Bashar the dictator and his Lebanese ally, Hasan Nasr-Satan, are only real tigers when they kill Syrian civilians and poorly-armed Syrian resistance fighter. They are paper tigers when it comes to a superior military force, like Israel’s. Didn’t Hasan Nasr say that had he thought Israel would start a large-scale war in 2006, he would not have authorized the operation against the Israeli soldiers?!!!!!!!

P.S., likely Russia delayed the conference for a few weeks to give the Syrian dictator a chance to win militarily, which will not happen. Now al-Moualem says that Bashar will stay and run for re-election (in a fraudulent way as always). The peace conference is doomed. The USA wants it only to show that it has tried the peaceful way FIRST! Arming the opposition is the fastest way to end the conflict!

In an interview with the Lebanese TV station Al-Mayadeen, Walid Moallem also insisted Assad will remain Syria’s president at least until elections in 2014 and might run for another term, terms that will make it difficult for Syria’s opposition to agree to UN-sponsored talks on ending Syria’s civil war.
[…]

I hope every person decided to help bring weapons to any party in Syria think twice.

Many people, from all sides are getting butchered one way or another. I do not know if you have dead relatives because of this violence, but I have. The last one of them has nothing to do with this. Now he is blown to pieces. Help stop this madness, one way or another.

All people who helped and promoted violence should be brought in front of justice.

Funny, “Tina” Jassem Al Thani has been excluded from that high level last ditch meeting….
This Geneva 2 conference was a brilliant move from Russia, it has uncovered what we’ve known for months, the SNC does not even have an ounce of credibility among the ‘revolutionists’ on the ground and even less among regular Syrians. The title ‘Sole representative of the Syrian people’ is a big mascarade that the Friends of Syria have unanimously and stupidly condone. Were they dumb, drugged or simply bribed by Qatar? .

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, former French Ambassador to Damascus Eric Chevalier, U.S. Ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford, and Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Salman bin Sultan, held a meeting with the SNC members, in order to push for a solution to the ongoing crisis in the SNC.

I find one’s integrity gets completely compromised when he/she says Sunnis massacring Alawis in Syria and Lebanon. There is nothing in this world and no one, absolutely no one, deserves that one compromises him/herself spreading.. well… “lies” about massacres. All of us will face God one day..

The only massacres that have occurred are the massacres of the Sunnis at the hand of the Alawis and from Houla to Banias to al-Bayda to many others that were not highly publicized.

The Salafi-Wahabi current is not Sunni!
They hijacted the Sunni-Movements and made a fool of them. They also destroid the just cause of the reform movement in Syria.
Salafism is a ridicule of Sunnism.

“Is Salafi Aqida the Same as Sunni Aqida?
Absolutely not. The main difference between Wahhabis and those on the Sunni path is in matters of belief. This is the primary difference. Matters of fiqh are secondary. There is also a fundamental difference in methodological understandings, especially of the concept of innovation (bid`a) and traditional religious authority. The Wahhabis deny traditional Islamic spirituality as well. The articles on Sidi Mas’ud Khan’ excellent website, http://www.masud.co.uk , are essential reading for serious Muslims, especially those by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad and Shaykh Nuh”

If 41,000 Alawites have been killed out of 94,000, it is a huge number considering that the Alawites represent only 12% of the Syrian population.
It shows that the accusation of genocide should rather be directed to the Sunnis.

a dead is a dead. why and how does it differ to you wether he/she/is blown up by a car bomb/suicide attack mortared while in his house, massacared”, gassed, cruxified, tortured to death.
Is there a honorable way of killing someone?

Would you favour some sort of an ethno-religious form of representation like the Lebaneese Model or rather a federal Model similar to Iraq?
A monarchy, maybe some sort with limitations of his power, like in Sweden?

As a non-Sunni I think it s crucial for the Sunnis to make clear that they don t share the ideological blindless by Salafis, this way they would not only gain trust and sympathies from the minorities in Syria but also from “westeners”?

First take those who are responsible and who say their are in power representing the people of Syria democratically without free elections for 4 decades. Those who tortured and bulleted the people of Syria for 40 years. Then when they are finished scan the situation and identify the remaining focus of unstability and judge remaining acts of violence.

Do you really want to judge people in Hama, Homs, Damascus, Daraa, Edlib, Deir, Raqqa and so on who were in peacefull demonstrations and took arms to defend.

Believing in democracy is being tolerant in a democratic situation but radical and untolerant when democracy is being violated. And it has been happenig for 40 years. Do not try the trick of justice for all, because justice is to be applied to the predators first. Because they are the cause and the origin of violence. State violence, terrorists violence and prisons violence.

Nothing of this would have happened if the thugs in power would not have decided to offer to the subject people of Syria: Syria of Assad or we´ll burn the country.

I am not discussing Iraq nor Maynamar or Guatemala for that reason. Additionally, please do not quote me anything from “Shariaa unveiled” web site. The site’s name gives it all. I really am not interested in hate sites where people make up things as they go.

Alawites and also other streams of Shiism like the Isamili, Jafari, Alevis, Bektashi, Ahlu Haqq, Bahai were for the most time in history hated, suspected and killed by the governing powers in the Middle East.

Even if we it got proven that sectarian hatred is the cause for Assads unfairness it s only a period of nearly 40 years.
Above mentioned groups are discriminated against in many other countries currently in the Middle East.

how do you explain the extensive tunnel systems which are used for arms smuggel.
These tunnels with a total lenghts exceeding 100`s miles prove that the escalation of this conflict was planed from the very beginning.

TEHRAN (FNA) — Armed rebels attacked a village in Syria’s Western province of Homs and slaughtered all its Christian residents on Monday.

The armed rebels affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) raided the Christian-populated al-Duvair village in Reef (outskirts of) Homs near the border with Lebanon today and massacred all its civilian residents, including women and children.

The Syrian army, however, intervened and killed tens of terrorists during heavy clashes which are still going on in al-Duvair village.

The armed rebels’ attack and crimes in al-Duvair village came after they sustained heavy defeats in al-Qusseir city which has almost been set free by the Syrian army except for a few districts.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

In October 2011, calm was almost restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies sought hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots to topple President Bashar al-Assad, who is well known in the world for his anti-Israeli stances.

Sorry but I am not going to fall in the foolish trick of christians fear sunnis and sunnis fear druzes and druzes fear bla bla bla…..

Enough is enough. The regime cannot use this tactics anymore. Now the main enemy of christians, sunnis and chias is the regime itself… and those who support it because beneffit from it as well as those who have no brains as to understand the regime is dead.

You know there have been many members supporters of Assad before you in SC and they have been disapearing day after day. Also many regime supporters I know have been turning sides and now are against the regime.

Accept it or not this is the reality. Not accepting reality can become a great problem.

The criminal fascist regime of Assad is responsible for the death of 100.000 people and the destruction of Syria while keeping 40 years of peace with his friend Israel.

That is the side you are on.

The heroe people of Syria will destroy the Theocratic Conspiracy of Tehran-Assad-Zbala axis. It is just a question of time.

There are things that do not depend on God and human stupidity of believing everything depends on God is one of them. God is not there to protect any religion, tribe or chosen people and of course Chia are not an exception. It is written… in Human History.

Taking into account that the vast majority of Alawites and Christans but also Jews converted due the century-long persecution to Sunnism and that a portion of Allawites practice Taqquiya the “Allawi” death toll is even higher than 41.000.

I support any democratic form that separates religion from state. The sooner we leave god at the mosque/church/place of worship and out of politics the better we are.

The only way to ensure minorities are protected is by protecting ALL the citizens and not differentiating them from each other. If all the citizens are equals and treated equally then there should be no fear of persecution.

Sandro who are your leaders? I am curious? This pack of apes led by Hitto and Company? The puppets put up by the war criminals in the West and the Zionists? Who speaks for you? Tara?

I don’t care who was pro-Assad before I came here, or after I leave. That is incidental. Men are free to back anyone they like. I back Assad. I back Nasrallah. I back the Syrian Arab Army. I back Iran. I back Russia.

I will never get over these people who are not Syrian, who live in the USA , or Canada, and cheer for a religious cult of terrorist cannibals to murder as many Syrian soldiers as possible to bring people already free freedom. It is insanity.

The SNC is led by people who are not even in Syria. Hitto ran away to get out of joining the army decades ago. Is this some sort of joke?

I´d propose that some sort of elections should be held as soon as posible under the supervision of monitors from uninvolved countries such as Norway, Peru or even Mongolia.
A stop of all arms shipments and a federalisation of syria in 4 or 5 parts.

The reality is so clear.
On one side you have a government united and solid, an army united and dedicated, allies united and reliable and a large population who support them.
On the other side you have a group of divided and corrupted expats egomaniacs plotting in Turkey with vicious and jealous Arab countries as well as western ex-colonialists countries, a fragmented ‘army’ of rebels paid by foreign countries and totally dominated by terrorists and countries that call themselves “friends” who keep stabbing them in the back and stabbing each other.

Nobody wants anymore of this opposition and their disastrous “revolution.”
Time to move on.

Why do you think the leaked documents exposed by the Turkish RedHack didn t receive coverage by the pro-Assad media outlets?
I still can t comprehend because that clearly shoves that Nusra was responsible for the Reyhanli bombings. There ought to be a reason for that.

As long as no moderating Sunni voice emerges the minorities would not subordinate to a such an solution.
We ve all keep in minde that the Middle-Eastern bounderies didn t evolve naturally but were shaped by Europeans. Therefore some sort of “odd” and mybe unusual solution has to be found in order to appease the different groups who are all radicalised.

Members of the Free Syrian Army reportedly attacked the Christian-dominated al-Duvair village in Reef on the outskirts of Homs on Monday, where they massacred its citizens, including women and children, before the Syrian Army interfered.

While the sources describing Monday’s massacre are supportive of Assad, it’s possible that it occurred since the rebel groups fighting the Assad regime are composed mainly of members of al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda affiliated groups and have committed war crimes and atrocities in the past.

Jabhat al-Nusra, the branch of al-Qaeda that fought and killed American and allied troops in Iraq, have positioned themselves in Syria and control the rebel movement.

The U.S. and other Western governments that are backing the FSA have acknowledged the presence of jihadists but insist that they’re only a small part of the rebel movement. However, al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups have been at the front of the rebel movement since day one of the Syrian war that began two years ago. According to German intelligence, 95 percent of the rebels aren’t even Syrian.

“Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of,” the New York Times reported last month.

It is expected self defense to call others with what you actually suffer from. I for one not interested in exchanging name calling. So please do not bother commenting on my comment if this is your style.

I can easily find you 10 web pages alleging alians attacking the earth. Please find a respected media outlet. Any one can allege anything.

Apparently the fact that something is posted on a respected media outlet”, such as Al-Jazzera, which is owned by a family who is to put this matter at it s lowest biased or Fox, Reuters, press tv, rt……
DOES NOT EFECT ITS CREDIBILITY!

The FSA has defeated the Assad’ militia formally called the Syrian army. The participation of HA marks this defeat. Has the Assad’s militia still exists, HA would not have sacrificed its status and entered Syria.

Now is the beginning of stage II which is the defeat of HA and stage III will be the defeat of the IRG.

Syria has always been the burial ground of invaders and her future will be not different than her history.

It s striking that Tara s perpective on this whole conflict does not exceed that of an average Jihadi recruted from a Pakistani madrassa. even tough she is apparently well connected with the wealthy decision makers (e.g. Asmas cousin) and hangs out apparently in a cosmopolitical environment ( drinking wine with her iranian buddies in the East cost).

Irish Gaelic: refers to the Hill of Tara, or Teamhair na Rí, the seat of the kings of Ireland from neolithic times (c. 5000 BC) to the 6th century or later. With this reference, Tara is taken to mean “Queen”
Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Persian, Punjabi, Kurdish, Bengali, Telugu, Sinhala: “Star”?

Ford is leaving:
One of America’s most experienced Middle East diplomats, Robert Ford, is to stand down as ambassador to Syria this summer after two turbulent years in the post, according to various US media outlets.
( ford was supposed to resign few months ago, Kerry reportedly did not want him to be part of his team, ford’s last rant was his last when he failed to convince the nc to accept Kilo’s men)

Tell a little SC history: back about six months ago Tara actually believed the FSA had an air force and was screeching they’d be bombing Assad’s home. She went on and on about it. It was pretty funny. I like to tease her about it but her sense of humor is not so good after so many years of Bashar-hating.

At first I thought that Tara is a paid Hasbara but meanwhile I think that the Israelis wouldn t have archieved what they have if they ve employed s.o. like her?
Maybe when Sesame Street starts a forum?

HA, the Shia Lebanese occupying terrorist party, is NOW hated probably by 90% of Arabs. Only sectarian pockets in tiny Bahrain, Southern Iraq and Southern Lebanon still admire this terrorist party!
For example, please see what this Algerian TV anchor in Algeria says:

Dawood once again is exposing the more than obvious the ancient Shiite conspiracy against the “Arabs”.
Will he be able to enliven the next intifada against the Shiites, maybe this has the potential to unite Hamas and Fatah?

Please Don’t waste your time with these pro-dictator commentators. Please stay focused on posting anti-dictator and pro-Syrian comment. Arguing with them is like arguing with pothole I saw on the road today! You just drive around it and avoid it! Why do you think they support a hereditary dictatorship in the 21 Century if it weren’t about Shia or Alawi or anti-Sunni sectarianism?

I wonder why, Lund, Landis and Berber even bother with sustaining this bloc. Most of the commentators are just pathetic, trying to be some sort of news feed, not being able to debate, no inspiring new ideas.
All they offer is sciolism, religious hatred and Misanthropy.

“[…]
Even in the Dahiya, the group’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a sense of isolation and anxiety is brewing among some of Hezbollah’s deeply loyal supporters. One resident, Umm Hassan, fretted over the weekend about where she would go if Hezbollah again came under attack from Israel. The last time that happened, in 2006, thousands of Hezbollah supporters took refuge in Syria, staying in the homes of Syrians, including the Sunnis who dominate the uprising the group is now helping to crush.
[…]”

DAMASCUS, May 29 (Xinhua) — The Syrian army on Wednesday regained full control over a military base in the strategic al- Qussair city in central Syria and dislodged rebels from towns near the capital Damascus in the south, the state-run SANA news agency said.

As part of its wide-scale operation in al-Qussair near the borders with Lebanon, the army regained full control over the al- Daba’a airbase after days of intense clashes with the rebels.

Pro-government media outlets said the army controlled large parts of the airport a couple of days ago, while the state-media said the army took full control over the base on Wednesday.

“An army unit entered al-Daba’a airport and cleared its structures from the terrorists who were holed up inside,” SANA said, adding that the troops are still searching for the ” terrorists” hiding in the airbase.

The Syrian army pushed its way into al-Qussair early Sunday after taking control of its suburb following 46 days of battling. The offensive aims to cut the rebels’ main supply line.

Syrian sources expected the operation in al-Qussair to end within few days.

Meanwhile, SANA said the army on Wednesday also managed to reseize the villages of al-Duwair and Mhajrin in the northern outskirts of Homs province.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, SANA published the names of six fighters from Jordan, Libya and Saudi Arabia who were said to had been killed during an army operation in the countryside of Idlib.

Also in Idlib, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said that an American and a British fighters were killed in clashes with the army.

Salim Harba, a Syrian military expert, told al-Mayadeen that more than 40,000 foreign fighters are currently fighting alongside rebels across Syria.

In an interview with al-Mayadeen, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said more than 28 countries have facilitated inroads for radical jihadists into Turkey before slipping into Syria to fight the government.

Meanwhile, the state news agency said the army controlled large parts of the eastern Gouta suburb of Damascus, namely the towns of Haran al-Awamid, al-Atyba, al-Abada, al-Baharyeh, Jarba, al- Zamanyeh, al-Qasimyeh and Adra.

I always wonder about these male characters that gang up on Tara all at once. Do they do so because of some sadistic fantasy or is it because they can’t handle a strong opinionated woman?

Also it is rather pathetic to use personal information she shared on these pages against her when you sit anonymously hiding in the shadows behind nicknames to afraid to share any personal information about yourself.

Plans for Syrian peace talks in Geneva next month appeared in danger of being derailed on Wednesday night as the country’s divided opposition movement issued a fresh demand for Bashar al-Assad’s government to be excluded from the political process, while Damascus insisted the Syrian president would stay in power until 2014 and possibly beyond.

Russia and France also clashed over whether Iran should be allowed to attend the talks, and diplomats suggested that the mid-June target date might have to be pushed back. Turkey warned that if the negotiations failed, it would mark the end of the road for diplomacy and open the gates to the wholesale arming of opposition forces.
[…]

Hezbollah said to control most of Qusayr in major setback for Syria rebels
By David Enders | McClatchy Foreign Staff

BEIRUT — Hezbollah and Syrian government forces have seized most of the strategically important town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border, fighters on both sides of the conflict said Wednesday, in what would be a huge setback for the rebels fighting to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A fighter for Hezbollah, the Lebanese group that’s sent troops to Syria to join Assad loyalist forces, said the group had cleared rebels from most of Qusayr. A spokesman for one of the main rebel groups in the area confirmed the assertion.

“We have suffered heavy losses,” said Yazed al Hasan, a spokesman for the rebel Farouq Battalions, which have occupied Qusayr since last year. He also acknowledged that government forces had recaptured the military airport north of the city.

Name calling, avoiding discussions, repeating themselves over and over are some of the first thing trolls such as Hasbara learn.
There is no point discussing anything with them bc there are not paid to discuss anything!

Thanks. They do not bother me a bit. I have no interest at all and what doesn’t interest me doesn’t bother me. Reve and the other guy can spend the whole night and more nights to come obsessing about me. Reve has already discussed me with his psychiatrist, few guys, and “some one who knows us both”. Now he can find a live company with Majoos. Let them.

@Tara
Don t take yourself so snooty. I always wondered if you had really known anyone of importance in the world why the heck are you waisting a considerable ammount of your life on this forum. Instead of doing anything more effective?

Syria’s ruling regime says it will attend Geneva talks with “good intention” to end the war and with no preconditions. At the same time, discord between Syrian opposition elements is growing, threatening potential talks in June.

Should the Geneva peace conference take place, the Syrian government will be represented by the Foreign Minister, Walid al-Moualem. Speaking from Damascus to Beirut-based TV, he said his government is yet to decide on the makeup of its delegation for talks.

“We will go with good intentions, with hopes that we reach a (deal) … we will go to Geneva with no preconditions,” Reuters reported citing the Minister.

While the regime expresses firmness, Syria’s opposition coalition said it will only take part in a planned peace conference if a deadline was set for an internationally-guaranteed settlement based on President Bashar Assad leaving power.

However, despite the looming event, it still remains unclear if the opposition will participate, and if it is going to be in Geneva, who will represent it.

While Russia and the US are joining efforts to arrange a peace conference, a sharp division in the Syrian opposition elements has become evident.

The Revolutionary Movement in Syria, the umbrella organization of activists on the ground, claims exiled members of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SC) are unable to fulfill their obligations due to “ongoing discord”.

“There is no doubt that the Syrian Coalition’s leadership has failed to fulfill its responsibility to represent the great Syrian people’s revolution at the organizational, political and humanitarian level,” the statement read.

The criticism comes as the Syrian National Coalition is meeting in Istanbul to discuss expansion of its decision-making bodies, choose a new leader and devise a joint position on the Geneva talks.

In its “final warning” to the exiled coalition leaders, four leading rebel groups inside Syria have slammed them for undermining the rebellion and lacking legitimacy.

The Movement members said they could not “bestow legitimacy upon any political body that subverts the revolution”.

“There is a daunting realization that the opposition has to get its act together before Geneva, otherwise the Assad team will run rings around us,” Reuters quoted a senior opposition coalition source at the talks in Istanbul as saying.

But at the meeting in Turkey, members of the National Coalition failed to agree on who should represent them at the conference.

The Revolutionary Movement has called for at least half the Coalition’s leadership bodies to be made up of “revolutionary forces”. It dismissed the meeting in Istanbul as a “feeble attempt to add persons … that have no real impact on the revolution”.

The opposition in Syria said the failure of the coalition has opened the door to “blatant interference” by outside powers.

Coalition insiders say that if a deal is not struck, the liberal wing will not participate in peace talks, thus, further undermining the ability of the coalition to represent the opposition, Reuters reports.

SInce the Salafi/Wahabis/Hariri/Erdogan is just an Israeli front, any negotiations with those will not be meaningful nor continuative.
The only solution is that Assad tries to create a direct line to Gantz/Nethanyahu.

French intelligence has reported a surge in Hezbollah militia fighting alongside Syria’s President Assad’s army. Meanwhile, the Syrian army said it has seized a key base in the north, once a transit route for rebels.
French intelligence services on Wednesday said they believe about 3,000 to 4,000 fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia are fighting alongside President Assad’s army in Syria’s civil war, double the number previously reported.
“As far as Hezbollah militants present in the battlefield, the figures range from 3,000 to 10,000, our estimates are between 3,000 and 4,000,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told lawmakers Wednesday.
Fabius blamed Iran for pushing Hezbollah into the Syrian conflict and dismissed any suggestion that Tehran could be involved in resolving the Syrian crisis due to its backing of Assad’s government.
“There has been a change on the ground. The involvement of Hezbollah and the fact the Russians have delivered weapons has changed things,” he said.
[…]

UK and France’s compulsion to lift the EU arms embargo will only lead to further bloodshed, and any weapons exports may fall into the hands of extremists, British journalist Neil Clark tells RT.

The more weapons they send to Syria, the greater the danger they will be used to strike against their own citizens and across the world, he explains.

Britain and France’s lone push to end the arms embargo on Syria is not conducive to a peaceful resolution of the Syrian conflict and preparations for negotiations cannot come with the condition of Assad’s resignation. A drive for peace in the region shouldn’t be decided based on an immediate change of government, especially one which still has a strong support base within the country.

RT: All diplomatic efforts to bring peace to Syria have failed so far. Would arming the rebels help them take down Damascus and eventually end the conflict?

Neil Clark: Not at all. This position of Britain and France – to sort of aggressively push the EU to end its arms embargo – only means more death and destruction in Syria. It’s very important to understand that the UK and the US and France, they don’t want a peaceful solution to this conflict. They’re hell-bent on one thing and one thing alone, and that is the violent overthrow of President Assad, and the Ba’ath government in Syria. They don’t want peace. We’ve had ample opportunities for peace in the last two years, and every time rebel groups have said that they might want to negotiate it’s been the US or Britain that have held them back. So it’s very important to understand that what they want is regime change –they don’t want peace.

RT: As we can see there are different positions on this – on the one hand we have Russia and the US that will be holding a peace conference later, and on the other there’s Britain and France. But the US has been reluctant to arm the rebels because (NC: ‘directly, yes’) of past incidents when weapons sent to Afghanistan and Libya were eventually turned on westerners. Now shouldn’t France and Britain be worried about those prospects?

NC: Well, absolutely. I mean, you said that the US hasn’t wanted to arm the rebels. They have been indirectly, through proxy. Through countries like Qatar and Turkey for example – they’re the countries that they’ve been sending the weapons through. And I think there will be a massive blowback from this because there’s no doubt it’s 100 per cent sure that if Britain and France send more weapons into this arena they will end up in the hands of groups like the Al-Nusra Front and Al Qaeda-created groups. And these will come back to be used against British citizens in Britain perhaps and across the world. And so, we’ve got a real problem here. We’ve got a British neo-conservative government that’s actually lining up on the same side as Al Qaeda and Islamic extremists in Syria, just a few days after the horrific terror attack in London, when a British soldier was killed by a radical Islamist – and so people ought to wake up to the fact that the British government is actually siding with these radical groups, I’m afraid.

RT: Speaking of the EU’s move – we have an interesting situation here: On the one hand EU officials have stressed they won’t send arms to Syria until at least August but on the other rebels want them now. So why the delay?

NC: Yesterday we had just two countries –Britain and France – who wanted this embargo to be lifted. We had 25 who did not. The UK and France are trying to bully their way through the EU, and so we’ve got this kind of compromise situation –this sort of stay of execution- until August. And I think what will happen is that Britain and France are hell-bent on sending more arms into this conflict, they are obsessed about overthrowing President Assad no matter how many Syrians are killed, no matter how much bloodshed is caused by this, and the rest of the European countries are taking a more sensible line I think. Austria in particular has denounced the British move on this, and I think it’s up now for other countries of Europe to stand up a bit more to the bully boys of Britain and France on this issue.

RT: We of course have the peace conference in Syria next month, but the rebels still haven’t agreed to attend this conference without preconditions, so what can we even expect from this gathering?

NC: Well, I’m not very optimistic to say the least, because for this to work, it would mean people going in with good faith, to try to honestly, peacefully solve this conflict. But I’m afraid the western powers – the US, the UK and France – they want regime change, and they’re already saying – John Kerry’s already said that the Syrians can have any government they like so long as President Assad is not involved in it, and there’s no recognition of the fact that Assad has sizeable support within Syria, if not majority support. So you can’t say on the one hand that the Syrian people should decide who their government is but then say on the other hand that they can’t have President Assad of the Ba’ath party. There has to be an acknowledgement that President Assad has sizeable support within Syria and the rebels shouldn’t come with preconditions saying that he’s got to go – it’s up to the Syrian people. The Syrian people can vote in elections who their government should be, and it’s not up to Britain or America or France to say who should or shouldn’t be the leader of Syria.

The definition of terrorism:
“Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them

According to the vast majority of humankind the most notorious terrorist organisations is Al Qaida!

By Guido Nejamkis
BUENOS AIRES | Wed May 29, 2013 6:22pm EDT
(Reuters) – An Argentine prosecutor accused Iran on Wednesday of establishing terrorist networks in Latin America dating back to the 1980s and said he would send his findings to courts in the affected countries.

State prosecutor Alberto Nisman is investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. Argentine courts have long accused Iran of sponsoring the attack.

Iran, which remains locked in a stand-off with world powers over its disputed nuclear program, denies links to the blast. No one was immediately available to comment at the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.

In a 500-page-long document, Nisman cited what he said was evidence of Iran’s “intelligence and terrorist network” in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname – among others.
[…]

It s more than revealing that the “Palestinian” Dawood is troubled by a bomb attack on the Jewish community in Argentine.

Israeli involvement in the Bagdad bombings on the Jewish community in the 50´s.
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950%E2%80%9351_Baghdad_bombings
Arthur Neslen’s recently published book “Occupied Minds” contains an interview with the convicted bomber Yehuda Tajar, in which he recalls a conversation with the widow of Beit-Halahmi, a fellow Mossad agent. She implied that Beit-Halahmi, on his own initiative, and without orders from Israel, organized attacks after his colleagues were arrested in order to cast doubt on their guilt.[11]

According to unconfirmed reports, former Republican presidential candidate and current Senator John McCain has joined al-Qaeda.

Informed sources report that McCain slipped across the Syrian border last night and joined the al-Nusra front, an Israeli-supported al-Qaeda affiliate that is waging war against Syria.

McCain issued the following statement explaining his actions: “In the name of Yahweh, the benevolent, the merciful, I hereby declare allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri and to the Zionist entity he represents. I have always wanted to grow a beard, cut off some heads, and devour the raw internal organs of my victims, especially since I had a bad experience in a POW camp, so this represents the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. I am grateful to Sheikh al-Zawahiri, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Adam Gadahn, and the other heroic mujewhideen who have made this possible.”

I am against the killing of ALL innocent people, regardless of their religions. The fact that I am Palestinian and my people are victimized by the Zionist occupation/colonization does NOT deter me from condemning the terrorist killing of innocent Argentine Jews at a community center. Terrorism is evil without exception. Iran and its puppet Hizbass, as the Syrian people are now finding out, are the biggest terrorists today!

Syrian opposition is sending military support for the besieged al-Qasir from Aleppo:

The controversy begins with the name Hezb Allah, Arabic for the Party of God. And the controversy is further deepened by what is implied by the name: the others, the ones who don’t belong to the movement of fire and brimstone, are Hezb al-Shaytan, the Party of Satan.

In the theology and practice of Hezbollah, there can be no mercy shown for other Muslims, let alone infidels beyond the boundaries of Islam. In a country like Lebanon, with eighteen religious communities, the theology of Hezbollah must be terribly problematic. The theology must twist and bend. There is a large Shia community, perhaps the country’s largest, but no one can be sure. The Shia are Hezbollah’s people, but what is Hezbollah—its doctrine and its people—to make of a strong Sunni presence in Beirut, Sidon, and Tripoli who vie for Islam itself, and return Hezbollah’s favor (and fervor) by considering Hezbollah’s warriors heretics carrying out Iran’s project in Lebanon? What can Hezbollah make of the Christian churches—the Maronites, the Greek Orthodox, the Greek Catholics, etc?

The tribunes of Hezbollah equivocate—they are good at that. They are brigades of wilayat al-faqih (the realm of the jurist), the Iranian notion that in the “absence” of the Twelfth Imam, the leader of the Islamic Republic claims sovereignty over the believers, and Lebanese citizens at the same time. No room for ambiguity is left here;wilayat al-faqih takes precedence. The pre-eminent leader of Hezbollah, the cleric Hassan Nasrallah, is bound by religious obligation (and old-fashioned ties of money and power) to render his loyalty to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Wilayat al-faqih skipped borders and the Mediterranean to find its way into a worldly country that had not been known for its religious zeal. Lebanon laid down the foundations of a “sister republic.”

The Lebanese have always sought the patronage of foreign powers. The French had held sway among the pre-eminent Christian church, the Maronites. The Americans had had a run, their schools and religious missions, the weight of their power in the decades of the Cold War, held Lebanese of all denominations in awe. The Muslim Sunnis had the larger Arab states to fall back on: the Egyptians, the Saudis, the Iraqis during the years of Sunni ascendency in Baghdad, the Kuwaitis—they all gave the Sunnis a sense of belonging beyond the narrow confines of Lebanon.

The Shia—the country’s hewers of wood and drawers of water—were latecomers to this game. Iran, the sole Shia state in the House of Islam, was far away, separated by distance and language. To be sure, some Shia mujtahids(religious scholars) knew of the seminaries of Qom in Iran, and of Najaf in Iraq, but on the whole the Shia were a downtrodden community. Their lands in Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and the southern hinterland, were forlorn places, set apart from the glitter of Beirut and its polish.

The Israeli-Palestinian wars of the 1970s, and the upheaval in Iran that overthrew the dominion of the Pahlavis, altered the world of the Shia of Lebanon. The winds of change were playing havoc with the Shia. From their impoverished villages, they had been hurled into Greater Beirut. Some had fled the anarchy of south Lebanon, and the bravado of Palestinian gunmen. There was no love lost for Israel, but the Palestinians had worn out their welcome. Sustained with Arab oil money, and the prestige accorded a “revolutionary” movement in the international leftist circles of the day, the Palestinians had ridden roughshod over Shia villagers in the south.

The Shia, a community that had lacked guns and daring, had begun to stir. An Iranian-born cleric, Sayyid Musa al-Sadr, who had made his way to Lebanon, had set out to organize the Shia. “Arms are the adornment of men” proclaimed this charismatic figure who hailed from Shia clerical nobility.. It was the fate of this singular man—I wrote a book about him, The Vanished Imam—to disappear in Libya in 1978, a victim of foul play by Muammar Qaddafi. But Imam Musa al-Sadr, as his followers called him, had transformed Shi’ism in Lebanon from a tradition of lamentations and political withdrawal to one of activism.

Enter the more consequential figure in the Shia world: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The cleric who returned to Iran from a long exile in Iraq was a Persian of course. But he was a pan-Islamic figure—to the oppressed, a redeemer. An eighth century Shia prophecy known to Shia believers everywhere was said to have foretold his appearance: “A man will come out of Qom and he will summon the believers to the right path. There will rally to him pieces of iron, not to be shaken by violent winds, unsparing and relying on God.”

The ruling cabal of this new revolutionary theocracy were shrewd. They thought that they could overturn the Arab state next door to them—Iraq, a country with a Shia majority but long in the grip of a Sunni tyranny. The bid for Iraq had failed. Lebanon offered an attractive alternative, a place where Western hostages could be kidnapped and bargained over while still maintaining the fiction of Iran’s innocence.

Lebanon shared a border with Israel, and an American educational enclave, the American University of Beirut, the jewel of this crown, that dated back to the mid-1800s. This gave the revolutionary theocracy in Tehran the material for a campaign against the “oppressors.” There was economic distress aplenty among the Shia of Lebanon. It was not hard for Iran, a large realm with substantial oil wealth, to find foot-soldiers in Lebanon. It had “salvation” to offer them, and economic sustenance.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, in the mid-1980s, literally erected the Hezbollah movement. The newly urbanized among the Shia took to this movement. It helped them conquer age-old inadequacies. It didn’t take long for “little Tehran” to rise in Beirut. The transformation was stunning. The chador was suddenly everywhere, as were the young bearded men and the clerics with black turbans who possessed of immense power. The cult of “martyrdom” was sold to the gullible.

There was an Israeli presence in southern Lebanon. The warriors of Hezbollah struck at Israeli installations and checkpoints, which was where the suicide “martyrs” acquired their authority. The sort of young men (and some women as well) who would have gravitated to the trendy leftist parties of Beirut now made their home in the ranks of Hezbollah. Later estimates tell us that Hezbollah came to employ 40,000 people, and to school 100,000 children. This welfare network, in a country where the state hardly functioned, gave Hezbollah immense influence. Lebanon had its unwritten sectarian compact, the communities were left to care for—and dominate—their own.
[…]

someone here two years ago said that Assad is going to finish his presidency in 2014 and it is looking like that, nothing less.
the more fighting in Syria the better it is for the west, it beats having more Boston bombings.

The intervention of the Shia Lebanese terrorist party in al-Qasir is condemned by the Human Rights Council! 40 Terrorists from this Lebanese Shia terrorist party killed today in al-Qasir. The opposition has 10 unclaimed bodies. Why doesn’t Hasan Nasr-Satan go and claim them 🙂

“I thought it s evident, we as Shias, are abysmal evil and rotten that we can t ourselves.”

I am not sure where you ever got that from me. I have nothing but respect for Shia and all other religious sects. I respect anyones decision to pray to whomever they want and will respect their faith.

In fact I stand with the persecuted Bahraini’s, the Saudi’s of the Shargiyeh and not to mention the Najrani’s. They deserve to be equal to their fellow citizens and deserve to practice their faith freely without persecution.

“Calling her strong opinon woman tells a lot about the women you know.”

So I guess you have some sadistic fantasy involving Tara if it is not her opinions that draws you to her. You should know name calling and rudeness is not flirting unless you are kindergartener…

And any person that can withstand the repeated calls to harm her and numerous bullying by a gang of hyenas is strong.

And most importantly she is not morally and ethically repugnant where the slaughter of Syrians is cheered as a cleanup and disinfection and the massacre of 100’s of innocent civilians argued away as hardly a massacre.

“Sami are refusing to talk to an Ajami (probb. out of supremacist viewpoints)”

Actually I have answered all your questions and see your Ajami roots having no baring whatsoever in any of my responses to you.

I think you better spend less time hitting the bong and actually read a book or two on how to develop critical thinking. Any deeper and you will be falling off the deep end…

Kudos to Josh Rogin for breaking the news that “the White House has asked the Pentagon to draw up plans for a no-fly zone inside Syria.” But wouldn’t it be a more powerful story without the euphemism?

Relying on the term “no-fly-zone” is typical in journalism. But that is a mistake. It obscures the gravity of the news.

Here’s how an alternative version of the story might look: “The White House has asked the Pentagon to draw up plans for bombing multiple targets inside Syria, constantly surveilling Syrian airspace alongside U.S. allies, and shooting down Syrian war planes and helicopters that try to fly around, perhaps for months.”

The term “no-fly-zone” isn’t analytically useless. It’s just that folks using it as shorthand should make sure everyone reading understands that, as Daniel Larison put it right up in a headline, “Imposing a No-Fly-Zone in Syria Requires Starting a New War.” That becomes clearer some paragraphs later in Rogin’s article, when he discussed Senator John McCain’s advocacy for a “no-fly-zone.” “McCain said a realistic plan for a no-fly zone would include hundreds of planes, and would be most effective if it included destroying Syrian airplanes on runways, bombing those runways, and moving U.S. Patriot missile batteries in Turkey close to the border so they could protect airspace inside northern Syria,” he wrote.

The article also quotes Robert Zarate, policy director at the hawkish Foreign Policy Initiative. His euphemisms of choice: “No doubt, the United States and its like-minded allies and partners are fully capable, without the use of ground troops, of obviating the Assad regime’s degraded, fixed, and mobile air defenses and suppressing the regime’s use of airpower.”

Does anyone think he’d describe Syrian planes bombing a U.S. aircraft carrier as “obviating” our naval assets? The question before us is whether America should wage war in Syria by bombing its weapons, maintaining a presence in its airspace, and shooting at its pilots if they take off. On hearing the phrase “no-fly-zone,” how many Americans would realize all that is involved?

The former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the highest ranking military officer in the United States – said that the Iraq war was “based on a series of lies”.

Many high-ranking military officials, top Republican leaders and key architects of the Iraq war said that the war was really about oil. And yet the American people haven’t seen any benefit … top oil economists have said that the Iraq war substantially raised the price of oil.

The American government sold the Iraq war under false pretenses.

Indeed, the American government planned the Iraq war long before 9/11. Former CIA director George Tenet said that the White House wanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11, and inserted “crap” in its justifications for invading Iraq. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill – who sat on the National Security Council – also says that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11. Top British officials say that the U.S. discussed Iraq regime change even before Bush took office. In 2000, Cheney said a Bush administration might “have to take military action to forcibly remove Saddam from power.” And see this and this. Indeed, neoconservatives planned regime change in Iraq 20 years ago.

National security experts – including both hawks and doves – agree that waging war against Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries has weakened America’s national security and increased terrorism risks. See this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this.

In fact, there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq until the U.S. invaded in 2003:

And carrying out acts of violence and blaming it on the Syrian government as an excuse for regime change – i.e. false flag terror – was discussed over 50 years ago by British and American leaders.

And Western governments want regime change in Syria because of gas:

Syria is an integral partof the proposed 1,200km Arab Gas Pipeline:

Syria’s central role in the Arab gas pipeline is … a key to why it is now being targeted.

Just as the Taliban was scheduled for removal after they demanded too much in return for the Unocal pipeline, Syria’s Assad is being targeted because he is not a reliable “player”.

Specifically, Turkey, Israel and their ally the U.S. want an assured flow of gas through Syria, and don’t want a Syrian regime which is not unquestionably loyal to those 3 countries to stand in the way of the pipeline … or which demands too big a cut of the profits.

A deal has also been inked to run a natural gas pipeline from Iran’s giant South Pars field through Iraq and Syria (with a possible extension to Lebanon).

And a deal to run petroleum from Iraq’s Kirkuk oil field to the Syrian port of Banias has also been approved:

Turkey and Israel would be cut out of these competing pipelines.

No wonder Turkey and Israel are both launching military strikes against Syria.

On the other hand, Russia’s giant natural gas industry would be threatened if Syria’s current regime is toppled … no wonder Israel and Russia are getting into it over Syria.

And the monarchies in Qatar and Saudi Arabia would also benefit as competitors in the gas market if Syria’s regime is taken out … so they’re backing the “rebels” as well.

And the U.S. is heavily backing backed Al Qaeda terrorists in Syria. (even the New York Times reports that virtually all of the rebel fighters are Al Qaeda terrorists.)

Indeed, the U.S. has been arming the Syrian opposition since 2006.

And the U.S. is now considering imposing a no-fly zone over Syria … which was also the opening move in the wars against Iraq and Libya.

Bush launched the Iraq war under false pretenses … similarly, the war in Syria is really being launched by Obama and natural gas players in the region who want to cut Syria and Russia out of the game.

Postscript: If the corporate media were reporting more accurately on Syria than they did on Iraq, the American people would realize that there is grave doubt about who is most responsible for the violence, and who really used chemical weapons in Syria.

UNITED NATIONS, May 29, updated — In the “urgent” debate on Syria at the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, South Korea acknowledged abuses by the opposition but called the resolution drafted by Qatar, Turkey and the US “balanced.”

Many disagreed with that. India noted that the draft ignored rebels’ misdeeds and was “one-sided.”

Russia called the draft “counter-productive,” questioning why if the US was a co-drafter the Geneva conference the US and Russia are talking about is not mentioned in the HRC draft. Some wondered: did Qatar and Turkey not want it in?

The UK, represented by former Deputy at the UN Karen Pierce, talked against referring Syria to the International Criminal Court, for both sides. But considering the case of Cote d’Ivoire, the ICC has yet to act on the Ouattara side’s crimes.

The US’ Ambassador Donahoe called for a halt to the assault on Al-Qusayr. Some wondered back: did the US ask for ceasefire in Sri Lanka, for example, as it closed it on the bloodbath on the beach?

Bahrain speechified about attacks on unarmed civilians — something they know about quite well, having most recently blocked the visit of UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez.

Like the UAE which has been a pass-through, Qatar denounced the entry into Syria of weapons and militias, both of which it sponsors.

Italy cited the Paulo Sergio Pinheiro led panel on Syria, without mentioning that panel member Carla Del Ponte spoke of strong suspicions of chemical weapons use by the the opposition.

Spain, also in financial straights, acknowledged rebel abuses, perhaps a veiled reference to the eating or mere “mouthing” of hearts and lungs.

In the free world we do not like to watch PRESSTV, this subproduct of mafia dictatorial states. It good for prodictatorial supporters own consumption but useless here to try to convince anyone else. If you do not have arguments please avoid posting articles and videos one after another. It is really tiring.

The pro-regime crowd likes to use the term “terrorists”, sort of like we Zionists have these past 50 years.

The term “terrorist” gets used quite a lot in the ME because so many people are dying before their time there. I suggest we learn the definition of “terrorism”, it IS an english word you know.

So here’s the interesting thing. Before the Syrian revolution, Syria was perhaps the safest country on Earth. I always used to tell people the safest place on Earth was riding a bus in Syria.

The Syrian intelligence service had all rabble-rousers and opposition comfortably in Syrian jails, the people were mute and obedient, and no one was challenging the Poster Child.

Then the demonstrations began in 2011. Syrians were walking down the street chanting anti-Assad slogans. Then the Syrian army started shooting these demonstrators, and the Syrian government quickly called these people “terrorists”.

Well, we all know it takes time to travel, acquire weapons and organize, but in Syria, it was done instantaneously. A peaceful country suddenly, and without warning, became a hot-bed of “terrorism”.

So this is what the Syrian government and their supporters claim, which we all know, is a huge lie.

Now, the Syrian opposition coalition is saying that it won’t attend Geneva 2 (I am sure that they will change their position). Why not attend? Just go and tell the dictator and his allies that they only would accept the removal of the murderous hereditary “president!” No agreement, and then show the world that you want a solution if possible. I can’t see any resolution that would keep a traitor who kills his people as their “president!”

The Kurdish forces are very wel organized and a government has been established. The borders of the Kurdish areas are guarded, a police force has been set-up and supplies are coming in from the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government, the only Kurdish governed area in the world in northern ‘Iraq’). Kurds from Syria receive military training and equipment from the KRG.

The FSA has now launched an offensive in an attempt to take over Kurdish cities. The Kurds have been fighting off these brutal terrorist attacks and more than 64 FSA terrorists have been killed. Fierce fighting is still going on and the Kurds are currently deploying more forces in these areas.

Syria’s main opposition group said today it would not take part in proposed U.S.-Russia peace talks, a day after, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu participated in their Istanbul meeting.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) will not take part in any international conference or any such efforts so long as the militias of Iran and Hezbollah continue their invasion of Syria,” the opposition acting chief George Sabra told reporters in Istanbul today, according to Agence France-Presse.

An Iranian TV station appears to have faked dozens of accounts of US drone strikes in Somalia which it says have killed hundreds of civilians.

Press TV, which was fined £100,000 by Ofcom on Thursday after the station hid the fact that a 2009 “interviewee” was being forcibly detained in Iran, has reported the deaths of more than 1,370 people in 56 drone strikes in Somalia since September this year.

Research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, however, has found no evidence of the reported incidents.

The Moslem Brotherhood supported by Qatar rejects the participation of liberals in the NC as they want to keep the monopole of power in negotiations and the eventual transitional government: A new kind of islamist dictatorship that the “friends” and even Turkey and KSA oppose.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels under siege in a town near the Lebanese border issued a desperate appeal on Thursday for reinforcements and medical supplies as government troops and Lebanese guerrillas pounded their defences.

Alongside a military offensive on Qusair and rebel-held Damascus suburbs, President Bashar al-Assad tried to drive home diplomatic advantage; he highlighted his foreign alliances in announcing the arrival of anti-aircraft missiles from Russia and militia from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and declared his willingness to attend a Geneva peace conference with his squabbling opponents.
….
An attempt to heal rifts between Islamist and liberal wings of the opposition by offering liberals more seats on the exile body that Arab and Western powers want to form a transitional government failed to mend fences with fighters inside Syria, who issued a new demand to have as many seats as the exile groups.

So, experts agree that Israel can overcome the Russian S-300, and I am sure that United States has even more capabilities to do. So, why is Russia embarrassing itself by risking the undermining of its “pinnacle” weapon’s deterrence? It doesn’t make sense, and I say that as a Palestinian who resents the Zionist occupation/colonization of Palestinian lands.

AnaIysis: Israel could swoop on S-300 missiles in Syria, but with risks
Reuters) – Israel could overcome advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles if they were deployed in Syria but any strikes on the system would be difficult and risk alienating its supplier, Russia.

Israel has pledged to take preventive action, seeing a future Syrian S-300 as a “game-changing” threat to its own air space as well as to the relative free rein with which it now overflies its northern foe as well as neighboring Lebanon.

Experts agree that Israeli sabotage or open force to disrupt delivery by Russia is extremely unlikely – a view seemingly shored up by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s announcement on Thursday that the first missiles had arrived.

That leaves Israel lobbying Moscow to slow down the shipment in hopes it would be overtaken and scrapped if Assad fell to a more than two-year-old rebellion, and in parallel preparing counter-measures to neutralise the S-300 on the ground in Syria.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror as warning European diplomats that Israel would “prevent the S-300 missiles from becoming operational”. That may be achieved by ensuring Assad does not get the full system, experts say, or by disabling it militarily if he does.

“The S-300 would be the pinnacle of Russian-supplied arms for Syria,” Colonel Zvika Haimovich, a senior Israeli air force officer, told Reuters in an interview. “Though it would impinge on our operations, we are capable of overcoming it.

He said Israel’s “red line” on the S-300 was “between Syria and others”. This was a hint Israel might hold off on bombing the batteries as long they did not appear set on shooting down planes within Israeli airspace, of being transferred to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas or to Iran – both staunch allies of Assad and enemies of Israel, or of being looted by Islamist rebels.

MARKETING MOSCOW

The Israelis excel in electronic warfare. In 1982, they “blinded” Soviet-supplied Syrian anti-aircraft units in Lebanon, then destroyed 19 of them without Israeli losses. Similar technologies helped Israeli jets destroy a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and, this year, to hit Syrian targets on at least three occasions to prevent what intelligence sources called attempts to move advanced weaponry to Hezbollah.

A source close to Russia’s defence ministry agreed that the Israelis “likely have a million ways to combat the S-300 electronically”. But he questioned their feasibility because they had not been tested in war.
[…]

Qatar is fuming of rage. They’ve spend billions of dollars to buy out Syria as their personal playground, now they are faced with a loss. No wonder they will fight teeth and nails to get the “Syria prize” under their exclusive control and realize their vendetta against Bashar al Assad. They are indifferent to the killings in Syria. They want the country for them.

Qatar the rich bully is hated everywhere and sooner of later they’ll pay for their arrogance and hypocrisy.

The second day of the operation to sweep the fortified area of terrorists in the south Darayya. Today we are shooting attack positions to the north.

In the morning, the Marines, under the cover of the tank, put forward by militant positions. The fact that the day would be hard to say the very first discovery – a mine laid by the side of the road.

the second day of clearing operations in the south of the fortified area of ​​terrorists Darayya.

00:22 Today we are shooting attack position from the north
00:34 in the morning under the cover of tanks, infantry advance to positions of militants.
that day would be hard to say the very first find a mine laid by the side of the road.
1:18 reaching the position of the terrorists, found the second bomb.
1:31, that would not be ambushed tank moves back and strikes.
2:26 Andrew – now on pushing the Syrian Arab Army units
For two of these explosive devices were seized.
3:20 because of the high activity of enemy snipers infantry commander recalls.
3:50 Andrew – weighs 10-15 pounds for three of these took. The guys are moving forward.
3:58 tankers go forward again, punching passes to the barricades.
5:00 sniper fighters constantly looking for us and that’s been found.
5:17 in the home area of ​​two by two meters hit seven bullets, and three of them struck the wall.
I was blinded by fragments of brick, and had come away from the fire to the touch.
One soldier suffered a bullet pierced his ear. But we got off lightly.
5:46 Andrew – all day today I am with the Syrian Arab Army division. We storm the rebel positions, they were well fortified, high in waves.
the day goes on the attack, were wounded. But once again I am surprised resistance Syrian soldiers, they literally nothing to stop.
6:20 smashing rebel positions infantry tank fire came from the flank and found the militants by surprise.
men trying to get their bodies that would give them the security authorities for investigation, while militants disfigured body machine guns.
6:56 due to the counter-terrorist operation, we attacked the villa and found a barricade
which was built fighters and hid behind it. They were destroyed by Abu,
with God’s help, we are moving forward, it would destroy all the fighters.
07:20 “is the fate of all the terrorists before they go down this path. It’s the fate of any terrorist who take up arms against the Syrian Army. This group of heroes, this is only the beginning.”
8:14 Andrew – this is such a line of defense from the militants. Next to a fence in a full-length trench, the trench to the firing points. This allows them to heal from the direct fire of tanks and go deeper. Here is a passage under the fence. Trenches are now in the neutral zone
8:40 surviving militant forces fled. Tomorrow will be a decisive assault on the remaining fortified positions.

The deeply fractured Syrian opposition doesn’t seem to have a chance to set a united front. That’s why some of their leaders dread to face a united and coherent Syrian government delegation in Geneva II.
Russia has done a good job in letting these long hidden divisions and contradictions of the opposition finally explode in the open. Syrians can now make the right choice for the future of their country.

Inside and outside Syria, there are 12 active opposition groups and a large number of less influential ones. Abroad, the most important groups are the CSROF, the Syrian National Council, the Democratic Forum, the National Change Current, the Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Syria, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

At home, there is the NCCFDC, the State Building Current, the General Agency for the Syrian Revolution, the Kurdish National Council and the Turkman National Council. None of these factions have real links, and they have not come up with any unified programme for their actions.

Sometimes, it can seem that each of these groups speaks only for itself, regarding itself as the nation’s one and only saviour. The groups can also refuse to coordinate, even in the face of a cruel regime that has no mercy for innocent civilians, but instead savours the destruction of cities and villages.

Each of these factions indulges in criticising the others and levelling the worst accusations against them. They may charge each other with being agents of the regime or of Arab or foreign countries. They lash out at the leaders of other factions and try to tarnish their reputations, a tactic that succeeds only in tarnishing their reputations and depriving them of public support.

Most of the existing factions have no power base, though some of them have inherited their ideologies, whether pan-Arab, religious, or leftist, from earlier times. Some capitalise on the personal histories of their leaders, emphasising how these spent years in prison, or how they suffered at the hands of the regime.

In brief, the Syrian opposition is splintered, divided and rudderless, and it is incapable of fielding a unified team at the negotiations. Over the past two years, the opposition has proved itself to be more skilled at infighting than at leading the struggle against the regime, and it has failed to come up with a leadership that can bring the nation together and work in a systematic manner.

The opposition is also still divided between the opposition abroad and the opposition at home, though neither seems capable of grasping the changes on the Arab and international scenes. Taken together, these things mean that the course of the Syrian revolution is likely to be harder and more tragic than it needs to be.

A radical Wahhabi group affiliated with al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front) is seen surrounding and then destroying with a bulldozer a historic mausoleum or shrine visited by pilgrims for the prophet Abraham, who supposedly spent some time with his wife Sarah in the town of Ayn al-Arous where the shrine was built. Ayn al-Arous is located south of Tal Abyad in the Raqqa province in northern Syria.

The person filming the scene refers to the shrine as containing heresies and being worshiped besides Allah without specifying who exactly worshiped the edifice.

This practice of destroying tombs and shrines is nothing new for the al-Qaeda Salafis, for they are currently practicing the same type of behavior in Tunisia, Mali, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc.

From May 16, 2013: A radical Wahhabi group affiliated with al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front) is seen surrounding and then destroying with a bulldozer a historic mausoleum or shrine visited by pilgrims for the prophet Abraham, who supposedly spent some time with his wife Sarah in the town of Ayn al-Arous where the shrine was built. Ayn al-Arous is located south of Tal Abyad in the Raqqa province in northern Syria.

The person filming the scene refers to the shrine as containing heresies and being worshiped besides Allah without specifying who exactly worshiped the edifice.

This practice of destroying tombs and shrines is nothing new for the al-Qaeda Salafis, for they are currently practicing the same type of behavior in Tunisia, Mali, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc.

Syria’s rebels demanded on Thursday they be granted half the seats in the opposition Syrian National Coalition, warning that without strong representation of fighters on the ground the group would have no legitimacy.

“We have learned that there have been compromises to expand the coalition which include bringing in a number of politicians, and a similar number from the rebel forces operating on the ground,” a statement issued in the name of the Western-backed rebel military council said.

Rebel forces had “requested 50% rebel and military representation,” it said. “The legitimacy of the coalition will only be granted from inside (Syria), and circumventing this rebel representation will mean legitimacy is withdrawn.”

The statement follows a deal struck in Istanbul to admit a liberal bloc of opposition activists into the coalition to dilute the dominance of Islamists in the organisation.

The Yemeni official told Asharq Al-Awsat, “Hundreds of Houthi rebels have traveled to fight in Syria,” adding that “Houthi rebels continuously go to fight there and they view fighting in Syria as a holy jihad.”

Robert Hewson, editor of IHS Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, said it was plausible that some parts of the S-300s had already arrived in Syria:
The whole thing is a collection of vehicles. You have a launcher, radar and a command and control vehicle. You need all of that working together … If your plan is to waltz into Syrian airspace and start bombing things this is a big wrinkle.
Hewson also said the Russians would inevitably supply military advisers who would work closely with the Syrian military and train them how to use the system:
There is a big danger that if you blow the S-300 up you will kill a lot of Russians. I don’t think the Israelis want to do that. This is Russia operating at a big international level and saying: ‘Assad is still our guy and we stand beside him.’
(one russian defense source said that it may be 6 months before the system is operational, the truth is nobody in the media knows)

The opposition will not attend the Geneva II conference simply because they have not been able to agreed on renouncing to their call for Bashar al Assad to step aside and because they are too disunited to organize a delegation.
They use Qusayr and the Hezbollah as false pretexts.
They think they are smart and people are stupid.

Syrian Opposition to Boycott Geneva Talks

George Sabra, the head of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), on Thursday said the opposition were suspending their participation until the international community intervened to end the siege in Qusayr, a town in Homs province near the Lebanese border.

“The National Coalition will not take part in any international conference or any such efforts so long as the militias of Iran and Hezbollah continue their invasion of Syria,” Sabra told reporters in Istanbul.

It was foreseeable that the Russians would do something in reaction to all the talk, from Hague, from Fabius, from John McCain, and others, about lifting arms embargoes, and no-fly zones, and all the rest. The result, apparently, is the delivery of anti-aircraft missile systems, better than anything the Syrians have had, and a great danger to western aircraft.

So much for the idiotic West. Congratulations to Syria to promote the defense capabilities!Glory to the heroes of Syrian Arab Army !

What part of my request (to post only short excerpts of articles and an occasional embedded video) did you not understand?

I can’t count the number of video embeds and long articles that both of you have posted in this single thread, the same thread in which I requested that you respect this community space for the sake of loading time. Should I take this as a flagrant gesture of disrespect or a serious case of short-term memory deficiency?

I have accommodated both of you and encouraged your continued participation even after receiving constant complaints from other users about your spam. But your disregard of my polite request is finally prompting me to issue you both this final warning.

1) I want short excerpts of articles only, and only “an occasional embed.” Please don’t make me define “short” and “occasional.” You are adults who should exercise your own moderation. It’s one of those things where explicit rules are useless because I’m not going to count your embeds or lines of your text—no time for such nonsense. Rather, if you’re unable to self-moderate, it will ruin the privilege for everyone, as we will have to prohibit all embeds. We have many readers accessing the site via their phones, and a string of embedded videos makes loading the site difficult for many. This also affects readers in many countries outside the U.S. where high-speed internet is not available.

2) Stop re-posting the same articles and links in the same thread! Dawoud, the irritation reaching my ears is justified. I think everyone is familiar with your positions now, almost every comment you post contains the same basic message. Time to take it easy and engage in conversation, not preaching. Ann, you have also posted content that has already been provided in the same thread.

3) 29. Dawoud said: 20. MAJOOS is making a false accusation about me, and I reserve my right to call him a stupid S.O.B and a mother-fuc@er!

Rights are social contracts, Dawoud. It’s not a “right” when it’s against the law. You do not reserve the prerogative to abuse others here, even if they attack you. Instead, you can send me an email.

Analysis: Israel could swoop on S-300 missiles in Syria, but with risks
…..

The Israelis excel in electronic warfare. In 1982, they “blinded” Soviet-supplied Syrian anti-aircraft units in Lebanon, then destroyed 19 of them without Israeli losses. Similar technologies helped Israeli jets destroy a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and, this year, to hit Syrian targets on at least three occasions to prevent what intelligence sources called attempts to move advanced weaponry to Hezbollah.

A source close to Russia’s defense ministry agreed that the Israelis “likely have a million ways to combat the S-300 electronically”. But he questioned their feasibility because they had not been tested in war.

“So, whether the S-300 would fail or not cannot be known”.

Robert Hewson, an IHS Jane’s air power analyst, predicted Israeli prowess would prevail in Syria while cautioning that the S-300 would be the most formidable air defense system it had ever faced. “Israel has had nasty surprises from these things before,” he said, noting its steep losses to the Soviet anti-aircraft missiles used by Syria and Egypt in the 1973 war.

Hewson felt Israel would prefer to destroy the S-300 in Syria but may opt instead just to circumvent it as required for missions, especially if there was the risk of inadvertently killing or wounding Russians helping to install the system.

Security sources have put the number of Russian military personnel in Syria at several hundred.

“The Russians would react badly to losing their people, and Israel knows that equally,” Hewson said.

Former Israeli defense minister Moshe Arens said Moscow should be mindful of the harm that seeing the S-300 defeated in Syria would do to exports of the system elsewhere.

Past clients include Cyprus, whose S-300, posted on the Greek island of Crete, may have given Israel’s air force a chance for test runs during maneuvers over the Mediterranean.

“I’d be very surprised if the Russians deliver this system (to Syria),” Arens told Israel Radio. “It would become apparent that our air force is capable of besting this system, and that would not make for good advertising.”

Playing down the strategic challenge that would be posed to Israel by a Syrian S-300, Arens added. “We are not afraid. This would simply change the situation, and we are not interested in the situation being changed to our detriment.”

HAZY DEPLOYMENT TIMELINE

The timeline for the anticipated Syrian deployment of the S-300 remains hazy. Hewson said it could be “up and running within a minimum of a few weeks” once all components were in, and provided qualified Syrian personnel were available.

But the Russian defense ministry source said he knew of no Syrians who had already been trained by Moscow, and put the completion of the S-300 delivery at “six to 12 months from now”.

Assuming Assad survives in power, such a lag could provide Israel with thwarting opportunities.

Hewson said the truck-towed S-300 would be physically hard to conceal. Its radar, if activated, would emit a distinctive signal that Israel could easily monitor, he added.

Diplomatic alternatives may not have been exhausted, though.

Yuval Steinitz, a senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, held on Thursday what political sources described as a discussion of the Syrian S-300 deal with Russian Ambassador Sergei Yakovlev.

In 2010, following Israeli appeals, Russia scrapped an S-300 sale to Iran. In what may have been a quid pro quo, the Israelis also agreed that year to sell Russia surveillance drones that would narrow its technological military gap with rival Georgia.

Russia now has other strategic interests – for example, investment in Israel’s Mediterranean gas fields. Silvan Shalom, another Israeli cabinet minister, told Reuters that Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned the gas fields while hosting Netanyahu in Sochi on May 14 for talks that focused on Syria.

But Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador to Moscow, was skeptical that Israel could offer anything that would spur Putin to slacken his support for Assad. “There’s too much at stake here for the Russians,” he said.

“Hewson felt Israel would prefer to destroy the S-300 in Syria but may opt instead just to circumvent it as required for missions, especially if there was the risk of inadvertently killing or wounding Russians helping to install the system.”

So it is not the rockets that is the deterrent but the Russian personnel manning it, and these rockets need 6 – 12 months to be operational… How much is Assad paying for this great deterrence?

I hope the Russians realize free Syria will not pay them a dime for any of the weapons sold to Assad and that helped him destroy the country.

Maybe Reve can send Putin some Ponies and tell him all about the time Assad defeated the IAF…

Iranian terrorism is not just in Syria, but also in Latin America! Hizbass is a big part of Iran’s terrorist network!

Yes. But here’s the rub. Before the Syrian revolution, Hezbollah and Assad were the “best thing since sliced bread” in the arab and muslim world. Not too many arabs and muslims were very critical of these “leaders”. It took the wanton death and terrorism exhibited on your own people to see the “reality”.

People like Majoos (post #339) had the audacity to question your allegiance to the Palestinians for merely mentioning Hezbollah’s terrorist connections:

339. majoos said:

It s more than revealing that the “Palestinian” Dawood is troubled by a bomb attack on the Jewish community in Argentine.

And so why should anyone be “troubled” by the death of 85 jews in Argentina, who were obviously not military targets. Because it was pure terrorism by Majoos own DEFINITION! Majoos tried to use a “moral equivalency” by linking to still alleged Iraqi bombings where possibly 3 people were killed, but this has yet to be proven.

Moreover, Majoos didn’t mention that the Farhud started 10 YEARS PRIOR, in the 1940s including the creation of Israel in 1948, well before these bombings. So Iraqi Jews immigrated to Israel, like most jews all over the ME because of intolerance and racism.

We are not seeing that much has changed in the ME over the past half-century, except that the jews aren’t around, so someone else needs to die.

That is why I want to thank you, because you aren’t afraid to tell the truth:

Terrorism is evil without exception. Iran and its puppet Hizbass, as the Syrian people are now finding out, are the biggest terrorists today!

This is why most Jews hate Assad, even though we aren’t sure what will come after him. Now that we see that Jews are not the only target of Islamist and Baathists, I am at least happy others can see what is going on here. Thanks!

“First they came…” is a famous statement and provocative poem attributed to pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the sloth of German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group. There is some disagreement over the exact wording of the quotation and when it was created; the content of the quotation may have been presented differently by Niemöller on different occasions.[1]

A spokesman for the primary rebel alliance in Syria, known as the “Free Syrian Army,” threatened that opposition forces could start implementing a broad ethnic-cleansing program aimed at Shia Muslims and especially the Islamic Alawite sect to which dictator Bashar al-Assad belongs. As Obama administration-led Western powers and a coalition of Sunni Arab dictators continue to fuel the increasingly ruthless conflict, the rebel FSA spokesperson said in a TV interview that minority communities would be “wiped off the map” if the regime’s forces managed to capture the city of Al-Qusair.

The remaining cannibal-supporters in Qusayr have been reduced to begging.

“Syrian rebels under siege near the Lebanese border pleaded for help on Thursday against government troops and their Hezbollah allies as a confident President Bashar al-Assad spoke of having new Russian missiles.”

You can’t compare that. The wholeheartedly support for HB in 2006 was not just staged, it was a vivid expression of support by many Syrians. I have never seen any support of that kind towards the MB or any Salafiya movement.

I told you that I would post long articles as long as you allow Ann to do so, and I have kept my words. The same is true with videos. I will stop now as long as you enforce the rules against her. We are all equal, and the same rules apply to all of us.

As to Majoos, look at all of his comments last night he called me all kinds of abusive words and I NEVER responded. Why didn’t you call him on it?!! Please check his posts last night. I was called the Dave “layla tuv,” a Herew for “Good Night” to question my Palestinian name and identity in a racist way (against both me, the Palestinians, and Jews in general-many of whom are anti-Zionist and support Palestinian rights). Yesterday, REV attacked me for posting about the Iranian/Hizb terrorist attack in Argentina. I replied that terrorsim against all human beings, regardless of religion, should be opposed and confronted.
P.S., I asked to delete the comment about Majoos once you delte all the dehumanizing comments that he posts about me. I was just trying to get your attention, and the comment indicate sol

As to REV, he seems to be obssessed with me and I can’t list the numerous abusive comments he posts about me (he Calls me “Dave”). Yeserday, he even mentioned my “wife’s hair.” His behaviour is that of a psycho stalker. Please do something about his troubled mental state so that he stops stalking me and TARA.

Russia is putting pressure on the “Friends of Syria’ to force the embattled opposition either to accept to participate in the peace conference or admit its incompetence. Until now the FOS has failed to get any commitment.

MOSCOW – Russia accused the opposition Syrian National Coalition on Thursday of seeking to thwart peace efforts by making President Bashar al-Assad’s exit a condition for participating in a proposed international conference.

The coalition said on Wednesday it would only take part in peace talks that the United States and Russia are planning if a deadline was set for a settlement that would force Assad to leave power.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the coalition gave the impression it was “doing everything they can to prevent a political process from starting … and achieve military intervention”.

I higly recommend to see this interview with Ron Ben Yishai, an wellknown israeli political journalist who explains in this 45 min long interview the role of Syria for Israel and the possble outcome. I think this is an very honest statement, quite revealing. The interview was hosted by Richard C. Schneider, the Isreal correspondent for the ARD. ( german tv) The language in the interview is English, watch from minute 1 onwwards:

The Arabs, in majority Sunnis, are reluctant to see their ‘brothers’ the Al-Qaeda, the Al Nursa, the Salafists and the Moslem Brotherhood take a beating from Shias. It’s a matter of Sunni pride after all!

The Sunni Arabs cheered Saddam al Assad when he was sending chemical weapons on Iran, they cheer the Talibans when they kill western soldiers and they still cheer Saddam Hossein.

Who cares what the Arab Sunnis cheer? Most of them are or have been powerless puppets of the West and they need a long time to overcome that.

I have another idea. Why not work to empathize with and build bridges with those you consider opponents, rather than searching for terms that carry a high level of shock value? Those terms will serve only to antagonize and incite anger, rather than develop understanding.

We’ve heard of only one “cannibal;” the term certainly wouldn’t apply to the wide range of individuals to whom you apply it.

I told you that I would post long articles as long as you allow Ann to do so, and I have kept my words. The same is true with videos. I will stop now as long as you enforce the rules against her. We are all equal, and the same rules apply to all of us.

As to Majoos, look at all of his comments last night he called me all kinds of abusive words and I NEVER responded. Why didn’t you call him on it?!! Please check his posts last night. I was called the Dave “layla tuv,” a Hebrew for “Good Night” to question my Palestinian name and identity in a racist way (against both me, the Palestinians, and Jews in general-many of whom are anti-Zionist and support Palestinian rights). Yesterday, REV attacked me for posting about the Iranian/Hizb terrorist attack in Argentina. I replied that terrorism against all human beings, regardless of religion, should be opposed and confronted.
P.S., I asked to delete the comment about Majoos once you delte all the dehumanizing comments that he posts about me. I was just trying to get your attention, and the comment indicates so. His dehumanizing comments about me were from the previous articles (threads), not this one.

As to REV, he seems to be obsessed with me and I can’t list the numerous abusive comments he posts about me (he Calls me “Dave”). Yeserday, he even mentioned my “wife’s hair.” His behaviour is that of a psycho stalker. Please do something about his troubled mental state so that he stops stalking me and TARA.

Thanks

***********Just 3 Examples for JUST last night of Majoos’ stalking behavior, which I did NOT respond to. In fact, he seemed frustrated that I ignored him! By “Layla tow Dawood,” he night in Hebrew-which is fine with me because, despite my Palestinian identity, I am NOT against Hebrew and Judaism. However, in his troubled way of thinking, using a Hebrew term was meant to de-humanize me and question my Palestinian background! Not unsurprising from a regime supporter because Bashar and Hasan Nasr now accuse everybody opposing them of being “Zionist,” “NATO agent,” “Takfiri,” etc.

327. MAJOOS SAID:
Someone should report on Dawood´s Katsa!
He should be downgrated to the position of a regular Shabbes goi!

322. MAJOOS SAID:
Tara, Dawood ans Sami are refusing to talk to an Ajami (probb. out of supremacist viewpoints). So far I aked them more than 2 dozend questions and so far none of them was answered?

Matt actually the cannibal was surrounded by his fellows cheering him on so I am assuming there is more than one. You can check the video but I am pretty sure a mob was chanting “Allahu Akbar”.

And, it isn’t like this was the first sort of atrocity was it? We’ve seen countless beheadings etc.

As far as building bridges that could not be done with terrorists.

I support the Syrian government and the army. I support them killing all terrorists – as any nation would. I support Hezbollah and their help to the legitimate government of Syria. I support Iran’s help as well and am heartened by these true friends of Syria. Dr. Landis, in TIME magazine, discussed the American-led conspiracy against Syria in 2006 or 2007 and I support that view.

Whenever I used “rat” I used it to describe murderers not innocent civilians. I can’t think of a more appropriate word that would describe someone who murders women and children but this is a moot point.

Dave could you please email Matt with your pleas about everyone you consider a “stalker” (LOL) etc.? I am tired of seeing you attempting to control discourse here by having people you dislike banned. I consider it very childish of you.

“After decades of authoritarianism, a wave of political change and unrest began to sweep across the Middle East and North Africa in early 2011. Successful democratic transitions will not be easy and will require change in multiple spheres. This report focuses on one sphere whose power and importance is often underestimated: the artistic arena. Regional artists have the potential to positively contribute to democratic transition by shaping public debate in ways that support tolerance and nonviolence. But Arab artists are often squeezed between the bounds of acceptable discourse, set by rulers who fear freedom of expression and conservative societal groups that seek to control acceptable behavior. Although the Arab uprisings lifted some previous barriers to artistic expression, new limitations and challenges have emerged. Moreover, artists continue to lack sound funding models to support their work and face limited markets and distribution mechanisms. This research explores the challenges posed by both the state and society in the region, as well as the policy shifts that may be necessary to better support regional artists. It also suggests new strategies in which regional actors and nongovernmental organizations take leading roles in supporting these artists and their work.”